


Dream, Death, Discord and Life

by AlbusTheMage



Series: DDDL Trilogy. [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: A Drakaina with a Katana, Angst?, Bailiff Apollo, Big Great Prophecy, But also woman???, Canon Divergence?, Canon Expansion, Chaos, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Cthullu Mythos?, Erebus - Freeform, Everyone's a badass, Fauns & Satyrs, Gen, Gender Neutral Chaos, Human Weapons!, I mean, If I do say so myself, Literal Fucking Void Chaos, Mysteries, Nasuverse References, Not the place, Ok just read the fanfic, Part-Time Camp Director Apollo, Post-The Trials of Apollo, Serious Prophecy God Apollo, The god - Freeform, Why would you give a gender to a godly Primordial Soup?, at least for now, i'm pretty sure satyresses don't exist in canon??, lots of 'em, lots of characters, lots of refrences, magi, not too important, once again, probably, this will be pretty long, to some degree, werwolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-12 04:48:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 26,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29379477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlbusTheMage/pseuds/AlbusTheMage
Summary: Dream, Death, Discord and LifeThe Cloven Girl shall be their guideAgainst Pandemonium, they shall face strifeSo the Status Quo shan't be defied.
Series: DDDL Trilogy. [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2158173
Kudos: 3





	1. Protector Blues

**Author's Note:**

> Hiya, This is a Mirror of the Fanfic 'Dream, Death, DIscord and Life' on Fanfiction.net. I'm just Checking this place out, see how it works. Also I don't have an editor so it may be rough around the edges. Do leave reviews, I require Constructive Criticism.

Dream, Death, Discord and Life: A CHB Series fanfiction

Prologue: The Cloven Girl

Pip Woodstock regretted many things. She regretted going to Camp Half-Blood, she regretted thinking that Protector was a cool job, she regretted going through the stupid amount of training needed to become a Protector and she regretted that one time she tried to eat that weigela bush that one time, who knew that there was a smoking hot dryad in there? But the thing she regretted most was taking this stupid job.

Oh yeah! You should totally follow that distress signal that’s MILES AWAY FROM YOUR LOCATION.

“Ugh, this better not be a prank.”, she muttered as she prowled down the streets of Brooklyn, adjusting her beanie over her horns (you wouldn’t believe how annoying it is to do that all the time.)

She could still sense the signal. At first, she had no idea what it was when she was out for her morning jog in the Strawberry Fields, but it was faint, annoying and coming from far away, so definitely a distress signal. In retrospect, that was a bad idea. Spending your whole afternoon bumbling around, looking for a frankly irritating signal was not her idea of fun.

Her prowling eventually led her to a local park. The signal was growing stronger so it was definitely a sign that things were going to get good. This will be the best part of this journey. Soon she’s going to encounter a hapless demigod being chased by a vicious monster. Tired and at their wits’ end, they will collapse on the ground, accepting defeat, seeing the monster tower over them, growling when suddenly, BAM! A strange girl dashes from the trees and defeats the big ugly monster with good ol’ fisticuffs. The demigod shouts, “My hero!”, as she bridal carries them all the way to Camp Half-Blood where she will be congratulated for being such a good darn Protector and then the whole Council of the Wild will appear and crown her as the best Protector in the whole world and then the whole female dryad population will become her harem and-is she just _sleeping_ there?

Surely enough, the demigod who she was searching for was sleeping like a baby on a park bench.

“Ah great. Not even any monsters around. Guess I should wake her up.”

As Pip walked up to her, she noticed that the signal was coming from a pendant she was wearing. A pendant shaped like a key. It pulsed with such amounts of magical energy that Pip was almost a bit scared to approach her. But, as she swallowed her fear and walked closer, she stopped. She sensed something else. She turned her nose to the air and sniffed. Ah, monsters. Finally.

She ran up to a tree and climbed it, perching on the branches, surveying the scene. Then she saw them, a trio of monsters. A dog-headed _cynocephalus_ with a hatchet on his belt, a _Lastrygonian giant_ in casual clothing and a yellow two headed snake thing (“amfishbana? Amphibiana? Yeah, I don’t care) that seems to have threaded itself in nightmarishly Minion™ -like clothing. It was already strange to see three different monsters attacking the same demigod but the thing that was even more strange to Pip was that all of them, even the Lastrygonian, were wary of the sleeping girl.

After twiddling their thumbs for some time, the cynocephalus spoke in a New Yorkish way of speech.

“Look pal, I don’t think this is a good idea.”

“OH SHUT YOUR MOUTH STUART!” The Snake Minion Kevin’s right head screeched, “THERE’S FOUR OF US AND ONE OF HER!”

“Firstly, do NOT call me Stuart. It’s _Doghead Stuart_ ‘Leader of the Mighty K9’s’. Secondly, while what you’re saying is right on the money, I think you’re forgetting that that’s the Silver Key.”

Pip frowned at this. Silver Key? I’ve never heard of that. What are they talking about?

“That’s the point.” Kevin’s left head said, “By killing the Silver Key, I shall gain enough respect and street cred to dominate this entire reigon! Every monster gang in NYC shall fear Kevin!”

“AND KEVIN!”

“THE GREAT SNAKE OF BROOKLYN!”, The two heads said in unison.

“Didn’t she defeat your brother or something?”

“What brother? I-”

“WHY YES! WE ARE DOING THIS FOR OUR DEAR BROTHER…WHAT WAS HIS NAME SUPPOSED TO BE?”

“I dunno just go with whatever comes in your head.”

“PHIL! OUR POOR SWEET BROTHER PHIL WHO FELL VICTIM TO THE DASTARDLY SILVER KEY!”

Doghead Stuart gave out an exasperated sigh.

“Whatever. I hauled Big Bobby all the way from Canada for this. Let’s just get this over with.”

The three monsters began to walk over to the girl.

“Yeah, another thing, what about that chick who hanged around with her?”

Pip slowly got down from the tree.

“THE ONE WITH THE BIG GLASSES AND THE BLACK HOODIE?”

Sneaking towards them.

“Yeah, that one dusted my lieutenant! I really would not want to face her.”

Closing the distance.

“Well to answer your concerns, Stuart- I mean _Doghead Stuart_ ‘Leader of the Mighty K9’s’, , that one hasn’t been seen for years. I doubt she’s still around here.”

Steadily approaching.

“And what about ‘er mom?”

“ _HER?!_ I’M NOT REALLY THAT SURE TO BE HONEST!”

“Oy vey, I can’t believe I agreed to this but whatever, let’s kill some demigod.”

And then, standing within four meters of the monstrous trio, Pip said the phrase that she always wanted to say.

“Hello there.”


	2. Ey I'm trying to kill a demigod 'ere!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pip beats some thugs

The three monsters, looking bewildered, turned around to see the young satyress, barefoot and having a satisfied look on her face.

“…IS THAT A SATYRESS?”

But before Kevin could say more, she broke into a sprint and drop-kicked the Lastryogian in his chest. The giant, being caught unawares, toppled to the ground as the other two backed away. Pip knelt down on his chest and revealed her Celestial Bronze knuckles to him before punching him in the face as hard as she can. His face, strangely like in a slapstick cartoon, caved in before exploding in a pile of golden dust, taking the rest of his body with him.

“OH MY GOD SHE JUST KILLED OUR GIANT!”

“You monster! He had a family!”, Doghead Stuart exclaimed.

“He probably ate babies for breakfast.”

“Ya don’t know that!”

“Well, he was a Lastrygonian Giant, a cannibal giant from the North, so it is plausible that he and his family, to boot, ate Human babies.”

“Shut up, Kevin!”

“Well, whatever. I’m a Protector of Camp Half-Blood and I’m here to pick this chick up. So unless you wanna end up like ‘Big Bobby’ over here, you should hightail it outta here.”, Pip proclaimed, brandishing her knuckles.

The cynocephalus, Doghead Stuart, laughed as he took out his hatchet.

“You think you’re hard enough for me? Doghead Stuart, ‘Leader of the Mighty K9’s’? Hah! I’d like to see you try-”

But he couldn’t finish that sentence, as Pip ran straight for him and punched him in the stomach. As he stumbled back, clutching his stomach in pain, she unleashed a spinning kick across the right side of his face, knocking him off of his feet to the right. She picked up the axe he had dropped and raised it above his head, going for the kill when she heard someone behind her spit and a hissing sound. She saw that the axe’s top half had decomposed. She turned around and threw the axe handle towards the Minion Snake as he tried to circle around to Doghead Stuart. It hit him square in the chest, causing his body to untangle so now he actually looked like a snake trapped in Minion™ -like apparel.

“YOU FOOL! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH TIME IT TAKES TO THREAD INTO CLOTHES LIKE THESE?!”

“I dunno, probably the same time it takes you to decide to dress up like a goddamn Minion from Despicable Me.”

“…IT DOESN’T TAKE THAT LONG!”

The cynocephalus got up and upon seeing the Snake Minion shouted,

“What in the name o’ Lycaon are you doing?! And is that my axe?! Did you burn my axe?!”

“Well, technically I spit poisonous acid at the axe head, saving your stupid life in the progress!”

“I don’t care! You. Ruined. My. Axe!”

“HE. SAVED. YOUR. HEAD!”

“I’m going decapitate you with an axe!”

“Doesn’t that mean you have more axes?”

“That was my favorite one, you beanie wearing piece of shit!”

Doghead Stuart then processed that the beanie wearing menace who knocked him was standing in front of him before growling and pouncing on her.

Pip, thoroughly unimpressed, simply caught him and threw him behind her jujitsu style, using his momentum against him. Doghead Stuart landed on top of Kevin, fusing into the mighty Kevin-Stuart, the big, tangled up Minion-Dog Gangster mess that no one needed nor deserved.

“HEY, GET OFF ME YOU DOG HEADED OAF!”

“Call me an oaf and I’m going to shove this handle up your ass!”

“JOKES ON YOU, I DON’T HAVE AN ASS! I’M TWO HEADED!”

“…Wait then how do ya-”

“OH WHOOP DE DOO IT’S TIME TO CHANGE THE TOPIC LETS JUST UNTANGLE OURSELVES AND FORGET THIS CONVERSATION EVER HAPPENED!”

The two untangled themselves and faced her down, not saying a word. It would have looked intimidating, if they were even intimidating in the first place.  
She prepared to engage them in fisticuffs galore when suddenly she felt something. The signal from the girl’s body was weakening. She looked at the bench and saw her rustling in her sleep. She was waking up  
As Doghead Stuart looked over to the bench, he blanched.

“Ok, we’re done here. We gotta vamoose.”

“BUT THE GIRL!”

“Buddy, there’s no way we’re gonna be able to face the Silver Key. Especially like this.”

“But the girl!”

“Look, I’m not planning to go back to The Pit anytime soon, we’re leaving.”

And so Doghead Stuart retreated while dragging Kevin the Minion Snake as he protested weakly in unison.

That being dealt with, Pip walked over to the girl and took her first proper look at her.

The girl had long brown hair and was dressed in a heavy and comfy looking purple jacket, accented by grey and amber. Her soft, youthful features made it difficult to tell her age. She did look fifteen but she could easily just be a twelve year old who had a growth spurt. She looked warm and cosy, making Pip feel a little guilty about causing all that commotion. But even though she looked cute, that silver key made her feel kinda ominous.

In fact, now that she was closer to it, the key felt even more powerful and wrong. Even when the signal was weakening, it felt powerful. A magical construct like that in the hands of this cute looking girl felt bizarre. It was rather mysterious.

She then opened her amber eyes and got up from the bench.

She yawned and looked around at the trees and the evening sky before noticing Pip. She walked up close to her and said in a sleepy, kind of adorable voice,

“Are you my Mom?”

Oh hell, she’s an amnesiac. Pip began to wrack her brain for a response. Tell the truth? Play along? Just ignore it and introduce yourself? What to do-

“Just kidding! I have all my memories! I got you though right?”

The girl giggled. Pip was taken aback. She didn’t really expect her to mess with her like that. And the girl didn’t seem to be confused or anything. Her giggle was kinda cute though.

“Um, yeah. You sure did get me. Uh, names Pip. As you can see,” She pointed to her hooves, “I’m a satyr, satyress, whatever. Point is, I’m a Protector, meaning I take demigods like you to Camp Half-Blood, the only safe place for demigods. Oh yeah, you’re a demigod by the way, meaning one of your parents is actually a god, so surprise! Oh uh, wait yeah, I shouldn’t have sprung it on you like that uh.”

Pip awkwardly tried to salvage the attempt at small talk but the girl spoke first.

“So you’ve come to pick me up to camp right?”

“Uh, yes. That’s what I’m supposed to do.”

“Then let’s go! I’ve always wanted to be at a summer camp! Though I guess this is more of a winter camp. So when Mom told me that I have to go to a winter Camp for some time, it was like, super exciting! Let’s go!”, she said excitedly.

Pip was not expecting that. She seemed to be taking this a little too well. And what was that about her mom? It was strange, but she wasn’t really in an inquisitive mood.

“So, what’s your name?”

“Oh right! Sorry. Sometimes I get a little too excited. My name is Penelope Hayes.”

“I’m Pip Woodstock. Nice to meet’cha.”

“Pleasure to meet you too.”, she replied curtly.

“So how are we getting there?”


	3. Gee, whiz! That’s a lotta mysteries!

“So how are we getting there?”

“Huh?”

“How are we going to get to Camp?”

“Ah, right.”

Pip took off her beanie and scratched her head. How _were_ they going to get back to Camp Half-Blood?

“Well, I came here by bicycle.”

“We’re going to Camp by bicycle?”, Penelope said, skeptically.

“Uh, no. I left it a while back ago.”

“Why’d you do that?”

“It was stolen.”

“By who?”

“Me”

“You stole some guy’s bike to come here?”

“Yep.”

“That doesn’t sound very cool of you.”

“Well, I’m not even supposed to be a Protector so I don’t really care if I’m a paragon of Protectors or something. Hey, how about we find a taxi or something?”

“A _taxi_?”

“What, you got a problem with the humble taxicab?”

“No, it’s just, I thought we would be going through some other way like a chariot drawn by Pegasi or a super cool woodland path or a secret tunnel!”

“Well, chariots are drawn on _special_ occasions, a secret woodland path to Camp is _definitely_ not gonna be here and the only secret tunnels in New York lead to The Underworld or The Labyrinth or Troglodyte land.”

“Huh, that kinda sucks.”

“Yeah, would have saved me a lot a trouble.”

Pip put her beanie and shoes back on and the two walked over to the road and picked up a taxi. Both of them sat in the backseat. As the driver looked back, he blanched.

“Oh goddamnit, not you.”

“Hi Mr. Bedrossian!”

“For the last time, my name is not Bedrossian! _That_ is my stupid rich guy brother’s name. Now where in the name of God do you want to go?”

Pip told the address to the Taxi Driver Whose Name is Not Bedrossian.

“That’s a two hour drive! You have any money? If this is anything like last time, I swear to the Lord above, I will-”

“Yeah of course we have money!”

Not Bedrossian opened his mouth to say something before deciding that it wasn’t worth it and started the car.

***

As they drove towards the Camp, Pip felt a little sick. She never really liked close spaces and it was showing. And she had minor car-sickness so that was there. Penelope, seeing this, decided to engage in some small talk.

“Um, can I ask you something?”

“Oh, uh, yes?”

She lowered her voice so that Not Bedrossian couldn’t hear her.

“You said you weren’t supposed to be a Protector, why?”

“Oh, it’s cuz I’m a satyress.”

“Wait, so satyresses can’t be Protectors?”

“Well, it’s not like it’s forbidden, it’s just that most other satyresses see it as a crass, undignified job.”

“…Being a Protector means you make sure demigods get to camp safe and sound, right?”

“Well, yeah. That’s what we do.”

“ _That’s_ seen as crass?”

“Yup.”

“That’s stupid.”

“Totally.”

“I thought it was because of some ‘patriarchy’ stuff.”

“If only _that_ was the case. At least that would mean that we satyresses weren’t complete snobs.”

Penelope chuckled a little at that.

“Heh. Snob. That word even _sounds_ snobbish. Like, ‘I am not a snob, you pathetic plebian. I merely have a sophisticated taste!’”, Pip said in a nasally tone.

Penelope laughed and Pip laughed with her. As Pip saw her laughing, she realized that she was really cute. But something about her still bugged.

“You seem to be adjusting quite well to all this.”

“To what?”

“The whole, ‘Greek Mythology is actually real’ and all.”

“Well, Mom always told me that magic and monsters and stuff was all real. And I have had some experience with weird supernatural stuff so yeah.” She said, shrugging.

“How old are you anyway?”

“Huh? Fifteen.”

As she said that, two things came to her head. Relief, since she was actually close to her age (Pip was a teenager) and confusion.

“You’re fifteen? You should have been claimed already!”

“Huh?”

“You’re supposed to be at Camp Half-Blood by the time you’re twelve years old! At that time, monsters begin to actively look for you!”

“Oh, those guys? I rarely see them and I’m able to deal with them. Mom doesn’t really let them near me.”

“But that’s not possible! Normal mortals can’t deal with monsters?”

“Oh, don’t really worry about that. Mom is not exactly ‘normal’, you know?”

“Who is your mom?”

“Oh, my mom is a witch. A really powerful one too! She even made me this!”, She showed Pip her pendant.

“Oh, yeah. What is that anyway?”

“It’s a charm for warding off bad dreams! And it’s got some additional functions as well. Although I only know one of them now.”

This was starting to get stranger and stranger by the second. There were so many mysteries behind this girl. Her strange acceptance of the whole monsters and demigods shebang. Her unusual age. Her mom. That silver key pendant. What did it all mean? Pip may not be the type to like puzzles but even she was intrigued. Besides, she did look cute.

“Um, Pip?”

“Yes?”

“I was thinking. I’ve been living with my mom for a long time, but I’ve never met my dad. Do you think he’s a god?”

“Hmm. Yeah, that sounds about right.”

“Huh, I wonder who he is?”

“Well, you _should_ have been claimed at the age of thirteen but you’re an outlier I guess.”

“Hmm. Are there more people like me? People who came to camp at a later age, I mean.”

“Well, there were these guys who came when they were fourteen. But those guys were like, part of some big prophecy to beat Gaia or something.”

“Oh. Wait, isn’t Gaia a good goddess or something.”

At this Pip proceeded to burst in laughter.

“PFTHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH! GAIA! A GOOD GODDESS. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Ohh. Kid, you have so much to learn.”

“… _Uh huh_. By the way, your name is Pip, right?”

“Uh, yeah!”

“But you’re a girl.”

“Well, as you can see,” she pointed to her chest, “Yes, I am a woman.”

“So does that mean your name is actually Pippi?”

Pip froze.

“Oh my god. You’re Pippi Woodstocking!”

“Sh-Shut up!” Pip said, blushing.

But she didn’t stop and proceeded to call her that for the entire length of the trip. She would have told any other person to shut up, but strangely enough, she just ignored it.

“Is this what friendship feels like?”, she silently pondered, “Kinda annoying, but cool too.”

***

They reached the address when the moon was high in the sky and blessing the mortal realm with its pale light (Artemis must be feeling good today). Not Bedrossian pushed a button on the car dashboard, opening one of the doors, looked over them and said,

“Alright, we reached your destination, wherever the hell this is. Now cough up.”

At this Penelope began to sweat. Pip leaned into her and whispered,

“I thought you said you had money.”

“I was hoping you’d pay it!”, she whispered.

“Are you kidding me?! I don’t have money on me!”

Not Bedrossian sighed and was about to close the door when suddenly Pip shouted,

“Hey look! Gold!”

And threw a golden drachma in his face.

Not Bedrossian recoiled and they took the chance to get out of there. Running into an alley and hiding behind some dumpsters. They heard him grumble before he began to whoop in joy, no doubt because of his discovery that golden drachmas are actually made of gold.

“Whew, good riddance.”

“Yeah. I don’t really like that guy. He’s pretty mean at times. So where to next? I don’t see the camp here.”

“Okay, see that small hill there? We’re going to have to go up that hill into Camp Half-Blood.”

“Huh, cool.”

But as they walked out of the alley and approached the hill, Pip sensed something. Monsters. Familiar monsters. Monsters that she had encountered before, just a few hours ago, in fact.

“Oh goddamnit.”

“MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Kevin, the Minion Snake of Brooklyn had returned in his iconic Minion clothing. Doghead Stuart had also returned, flanked by two other cynocephali. All of them wielded two headed axes, which were definitely made of Celestial Bronze.

“Well, well, well. Look who it is, boys. The beanie wearing piece of shit who got my favorite axe destroyed.

“For the record, it was the Snake Minion who actually ruined your axe.”

“I am aware. But I’m going to kill you anyway. Besides, we do have an additional prize.”, He said pointing at Penelope.

Pip tried to think of something snarky or badass but she couldn’t get over the feeling of dread she had. Fighting all of them at once? That would be pretty hard to do. But getting to the Camp _and_ defending Penelope at the same time? Yeah there’s a snowballs chance in Tartarus of that happening. But as she tried to swallow her dread and think of something cool to say, Penelope walked in front of her.

“Hmm. So you guys are after me?”

The monsters began to look at each other.

“Strange.”, she said, bringing her hand to her chin, “Aren’t you guys supposed to be afraid of me? That’s why you call me, ‘The Silver Key’, don’t you? All because I killed that gorgon that one time. It’s flattering really.”

The monsters were beginning to get nervous. Pip too was nervous, mainly because she felt like Penelope was going way over her head.

“I’m gonna cut you a deal. Leave us alone,” She raised both her hands, “Or I’m going to blow you all to pieces.”

Doghead Stuart overcame his nervousness and laughed.

“Hah! You think we’re scared?”

“Judging by the faces of your subordinates. Yup.”

Doghead Stuart turned around to see both of his cronies shaking in their boots. He was going to reprimand them but then mist began to swirl around Penelope. Pip looked on in awe and confusion as the mist began to swirl up into a ball in her hands and she chanted.

“Estuans interius ira vehementi!”

“Estuans interius ira vehementi!

“ _Estuans interius ira vehementi!_ ”

“Estua-”

“Wait, isn’t that the latin from that song from Final Fantasy 7?”, One of the cynocephali intrerrupted.

Penelope fell silent.

“Like you know, the song for that cool guy with the hair and the sword? The guy who got into Super Smash Bros? Sephiross? I think that’s what his name is?”

Penelope then splayed her hands, releasing the mist as a gust of wind, throwing the quintessential quartet several metres away.

She then turned to Pip.

“Quick! We need to get out of here!”

Pip came to her senses.

“Alright, it’s this way!”

She grabbed her hand and ran for the hill. As they ran, they could hear the monsters give chase. They heard Kevin screaming “GET THEM” in unison and the snarling of the ‘Mighty K9’s’. As they ran Pip shouted.

“HEY SO APPARENTLY YOU COULD DO MAGIC, HOW?”

“Well – huff- my mom is a witch –huff- so of course I can do magic! But I only know a few rudimentary spells. And I have a trick I can do –huff - with my pendant, but it takes a bunch out of me and I can only –huff- do it on one person.”

“YOUR GODLY PARENT MUST BE PRETTY DAMN INTERESTING THEN!”

They were running up the hill when they heard the sound.

It was like a wolf’s howl, but distorted and strangled so it sounded…different. The wolf-like howl pierced the night sky and their ears.

What the hell.

I’ve never heard something like that.

_What the hell._

They began to run faster, as they heard footsteps, _many_ footsteps, echo around them.

They ran faster and increasingly frantically as the horde began to close in on them and then the footsteps quieted. They had reached the borders of Camp Half Blood.

They saw the Pine Tree that marked the borders. The dragon, Peleus who guarded the Golden Fleece on the tree, slept peacefully. The entrance was just up ahead of them. They had made it.

“We did it. By the Gods, we did it!”

Pip turned around to the woods behind them,

“YOU HEAR THAT, WEIRD WOLF THINGS THAT CAME OUTTA NOWHERE! WE MADE IT IN AND THERE’S NOTHING YOU CAN DO!”

She turned around to Penelope and realized that she was holding her hand. She quickly let go and brought her hand to the back of her neck, blushing.

“Oh uh, sorry for-”

“No, no. It’s fine.”, Penelope said, putting her hands in her pockets and blushing slightly.

A satyr ran upto them with a grumpy expression.

“There you are! Where have you been? It’s been the whole day since you showed up and you were just about to miss roll call! We’re you out there fighting monsters again or-”

He then noticed Penelope and his expression changed.

“Wait, did you? Oh wow, you actually got your first demigod! Congrats!”

“Oh, uh, thank you!”

“But you’re still late.” He said, his expression going back to that of grumpiness.

“Now c’mon girl, you gotta go to the Big House before going to the camfire, get yourself claimed you know?”

Penelope got nervous and began to twiddle her fingers.

“Is it okay if I bring her along as well?”, she said pointing at Pip.

“Huh?”

The satyr sighed.

“Well, looks like you got lucky. I’ll tell the others later.”

The satyr guided them to the Big House, the old Victorian brick house where the Camp Director and Camp Counselor resided.

Penelope was a little intimidated so Pip decided to hold her hand. They walked in and saw, admist all the decorations, two people. An old man in a wheelchair, the centaur Chiron, of course and the Camp Counselor. Pip’s stomach lurched when she saw him. It was a natural instinct for a satyr, even though he had changed in recent times, _he_ still generally caused unease in her. And she had forgotten that it was _his_ week at the moment.

The average, young, brown haired and blue eyed boy spoke,

“Oh hey, you must be a new demigod!”

He walked up to Penelope and held out a hand.

“Hi, my name is Apollo. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood.”


	4. The Claiming of Penelope

Penelope blinked and shook his hand.

“Well, to begin, Camp Half-Blood is a safe haven for all Greek demigods. Here you will make friends, engage in fun activities and listen to lots of cool music! All of which is made by me, Apollo.”

“Uh, yeah, I got that already. You’re Apollo?”

“Yup. That’s me, Apollo, god of music, medicine, prophecy and The Sun.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be like this handsome god who can’t ever get a date or something?”

“Ahaha. Yeah. You’re probably wondering why I’m like this. Well, the truth is that I can change form at anytime.”

Apollo snapped his fingers and turned into a tall, blonde haired man, making Penelope awestruck with his beauty and grace, before changing back.

“But I prefer to stay in this form.”

“Uh, ok.”

“As for _why_ that is, well, you can hear all about it in my new campfire song, The Trials of Apollo!”

Chiron cleared his throat,

“I believe that you’re forgetting something, Apollo.”

“Oh right! What’s your name?”

“Penelope Hayes.”

“How old are you?”

“Fifteen.”

This made Apollo pause a bit.

“Huh, how strange. The last time something like this happened… Well, whatever! Do you have a smartphone with you?”

“What? Uh, yes.”

“Would you give it to me for a second?”

Penelope took out her smartphone and handed it to Apollo. He touched its surface and the smartphone began to glow. He then handed it over to Penelope. She saw that the surface now had a mark, a mark that looked like a compass with arrows pointing at every direction.

“Uh, Mr. Apollo?”

“Just Apollo will be fine. You can even call me Lester!”, he pondered for a moment, “Nah, just call me Apollo.”

“What is this?”

“Oh this is a brand new, monster proof, safe for use (for demigods) operating system for your phone! I call it, ‘DelphOS’.”

As Apollo began to explain the functions of DelphOS to Penelope, Chiron rolled over to Pip.

“So, you managed to get your first demigod to Camp.”

“Yeah. Wasn’t that hard too.”

“I knew you could do it. I saw the pontential in you the moment you came here, asking to become a Protector. I am truly proud of you.”

Pip smiled at that. Chiron was always like a mentor and father figure to her so it made her really happy when he said that.

“But I do have to admit, this is pretty strange. That girl is fifteen years old. I should have known if her mortal parent wanted to keep her for that long. I should have known about her in the first place. We know about all demigods within the New York area, right?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And yet I have no idea who she is. How did you find her anyway?”

“I heard a distress signal, at least I think that was one. I followed it over to Brooklyn and saw her sleeping on a bench.”

“Huh, did she not have her parent around?”

“No, she does have a mother but I have no idea who she is. All I know is from what she told me.”

“And what about that pendant hanging from her neck?”

“A charm for warding off bad dreams made by her mother, at least that’s what she says.”

“Hmm. An unclaimed fifteen year old wearing a strange, powerful magical construct who we know next to nothing about.”

“Sounds like a prophecy.”

“Indeed. But there’s nothing we can do right now. We shall wait and see what happens next.”

Pip got a little nervous. It has been two years since the last major prophecy. It was inevitable that something was going to go down sooner or later. But why is Penelope involved? And does that mean Pip herself is involved too. Like Chiron said, there was nothing to do but wait, but Pip really didn’t like the sound of that. She wasn’t going to be caught in the headlights of whatever prophetic bullcrap is about to go down. She wanted to be ready. But could she be? And could Penelope be?

“And that’s DelphOS!”

“Um, you only told me about how you made it and it’s features, I don’t know how to use it.”

“Eh, you’ll figure it out no sweat.”

“Also, are you the fulltime Camp Director?”

“No. I rotate with Dionysus on a weekly basis.”

“Does that mean you don’t pilot the sun for a week straight? Also, Dionysus?!”

“Well, yeah but it just rotates by itself so I don’t need to do that much. And what about him?”

“Aren’t you two supposed to be opposites? Apollonian Clarity and Dionysian Mysteries and stuff?”

“Well, yeah but I’m cool with him. He’s annoying at times but he’s my brother anyway. You should have seen his face when I yeeted him upto Olympus with my message. He’s probably trolling everyone as we speak.”

“Um, ok.”

“Apollo. It’s time we introduced her to the rest of camp.”, Chiron said.

“Oh, you’re right! To the campfire!”

They went outside, where Chiron changed into his centaur form (Penelope gawked at him) and they headed for the campfire.

There weren’t too many people in Camp Half-Blood at the moment, it was a summer camp after all, but there were still a bunch of people sitting at the campfire. She could tell that Penelope was nervous but she was doing a good job of hiding it.

“Campers, I am here to make an announcement. Today, a new camper joins Camp Half-Blood. Her name is Penelope Hayes,” Penelope waved nervously at the crowd.

“And as of now, she is Unclaimed. Which should be rectified in about-”

But before Chiron could finish, the mark appeared over Penelope.

She had felt little pieces of earth on her head and she had brushed them off before looking up. It was an island, a small island with a poplar tree and a river flowind down it. Chiron and some of the campers at the campfire looked at it with intrigue.

“Well, she’s no longer Unclaimed, that’s for sure.” Apollo said. “Welcome, Daughter of Hypnos.”

“Now who’s ready for campfire songs?” Apollo shouted and most of the campers cheered.

Penelope walked over to the campfire and saw a potbellied bovine looking boy signaling her to sit at their bench. She sat there with the other five campers who were sitting there.

“So.”, The bovine blonde spoke, “You’re a Child of Hypnos.”

“Um, yes, I guess.”

“Cool. I’m one as well. And so are the rest of us.” He said, gesturing to the others. “This is the Hypnos Bench, after all.”

“Oh! Neat.”

“Now about your Mark.”

“What about it?”

“It’s actually pretty special. Only the most powerful children of Hypnos get that one.”

“Oh, and what about you?”

“I’m the same. Name’s Clovis. Welcome to the club.”

“Are we the only two who have this super special Mark?”

“Yup.”

“Then we can’t be in a club. You gotta have three people before you can make a club.”

“I know.”

“And this technically means you all are my siblings, right?”

“Yup.”

“Oh. Cool.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty cool.”

As they chatted and ate dinner, Pip watched. She was going to fit well. But she also noticed something else. The Hecate Campers were also looking at her, no doubt because they could sense her pendant. She also saw the dark haired boy sitting at the Apollo table staring suspiciously at her. That wasn’t really a good sign. She didn’t know much about him but she knew that he was a veteran from the Titan War, The War against Gaia and that he had assisted Apollo in taking down the Trirumvirate. She also knew that a year back he had gone to Tartarus and back, though she didn’t know why. In conclusion, he was a scary person to be against.

She could tell now that things were going to be eventful for Penelope.


	5. A Nice, Quiet Walk in an Empty, Quiet Neighborhood.

It was a cold Sunday evening and Pip was walking on the streets of the quiet neighbourhood near the Camp. This particular neighbourhood mostly had empty houses, only a few people lived here. This was the perfect place to just have a walk and think about things. And that was what Pip was doing. She’d gotten over the whole ‘I got my first demigod into camp’ thing and she was now pondering over last week.

Penelope was definitely adjusting well. She was super energetic, trying a lot of activities at Camp. It was strange since she was a Child of Hypnos but when Pip asked her about that she just said, “A good days’ sleep comes after a good days’ work, y’know?” And just carried on with whatever she was doing.

She was also strangely interested in wall climbing. Like, she was pretty good at it but no one, not even Penelope herself knew why. When Pip asked her about wall climbing, she seemed fairly knowledgeable about it but didn’t really seem to remember why. She only told her that it ‘felt nostalgic’ and changed the conversation to something else. 

As for the social aspect, she did seem to get along with her Cabin-mates but she was reserved around everyone else. She was good at teamwork, seeing that she worked super well with other Campers at team activities, but she didn’t really try to make friends with anyone yet. When she was approached by anyone that wasn’t a cabin-mate or Pip, she would get nervous and run away, which was kinda difficult with all the attention she had. She was well known for being able to do magic despite not being in the Hecate cabin, but she would rarely answer questions. Eventually most of the campers realized that she was a little overwhelmed by all the attention and was an introvert so they decided to respect her privacy, which was pretty nice of them (though it was probably because of all the dirty looks Pip threw their way). But the Hecate Cabin was still pretty interested in her and the dark haired boy, whose name, Nico di Angelo, she had recently learned, still seemed pretty wary of her.

There was also the other Camp Director, Dionysus’ opinion on her. A strange demigod wearing an uncannily powerful magical construct was definitely prophecy level stuff. While Dionysus was the wine god and he had regained some of his youthful trickery thanks to being able to return to Olympus every week, he was still an Olympian. And if an Olympian tell you you’re prophecy material, well. 

Pip sighed a little. While everyone did like Penelope, they did notice the strange aura of mystery around her. It intrigued everyone. It intrigued Pip too but it also made her nervous. While she was fond of Penelope, that air of mystery made her rather unsettling. What are the answers to the mysteries surrounding her and does she really want to know.

‘Aw hell, I went a little deep there.’, Pip thought. And so she decided to think of something else when suddenly she felt a sharp presence in the air. Pip had a very keen sense of danger. She could tell whether there were monsters or powerful demigods or anything supernatural nearby and this presence was no exception.

She walked up to one of the abandoned houses and her instincts told her to run. Something was in that house, something bad. Pip was thinking of leaving but she couldn’t move. What if there was a demigod in there? Or a mortal? Could she really abandon an innocent like that? But just as she was about to decide what to do next, the presence began heading for her.

Her instincts began screaming at her to move, but before she could run, it jumped out of the window. Or rather, _he_ jumped out of the window. A demigod, exhausted and disheveled, landed at Pip’s feet. At this Pip was confused, surely _this_ wasn’t the presence. This couldn’t be what she felt. But before she could discern exactly what she felt. The demigod woke up with a start and began to scream in a panicked voice.

“AAAAAAAAAWHOAREYOUWHATDOYOUWANTPLEASEDONTHURTMEI’MJUSTAPOORBOYINEEDNOSYMPATHYAAAAAAAA”

“Whoa, whoa! Easy, chill, calm down. I’m not going to hurt you?”

“Then who the hell are you?!”

“You better calm down first.”

The demigod hyperventilated before calming his rather frayed nerves.

“Okay, okay. Who are you?”

“I’m a Protector at Camp Half-Blood. It’s my job to get lost little demigods like you to safety.”

“Oh. Oh! Then you could help me with my problem!”

“What?”

The demigod put his hand at the back of his neck.

“Well, y’see, there’s a problem I’ve been having. There’s this…monster. It’s been hunting me for a week now. I hid in this neighbourhood just to be safe but it’s here. I did…something to it and now it’s in that house.”

He pointed the house he jumped out of.

“Well, I could take you to Camp, Monsters can’t get into camp.”

“Uh, I’m not sure, that monster is really tough, what if it gets us before we reach this camp you’re talking about?

Pip stopped to think for a moment. What the demigod said was right. It could get them before they reach Camp and those wolf things on Half-Blood Hill could still be there.

“Hmm. I could try to kill it. It is much safer to do that. And besides,” She took out her Celestial Bronze knuckles, “I’m always ready for a fight.”

The demigod looked at her nervously.

“You really think you can kill it?”

“Oh please. Whatever it is, a good uppercut with this thing could probably kill it.”

“Okay…My name’s Eric, by the way.”

“Pip Woodstock.”

“Huh?”

“My name is Pip Woodstock.”

“Okay…”

She took off her shoes and stepped inside the house, the demigod fearfully following suit.


	6. An Odd Encounter with a Strange Monster

The simple, three story house was empty, quiet, dark and very abandoned. There was definitely something in the house, given how a lot of the furniture had been upturned or broken. Pip searched around the living room, then the kitchen, the dining room adjacent to the kitchen, the rooms at the back of the house, where she saw yet another broken window, and then went upstairs, checking the bedrooms.

"Now, where exactly did you leave this monster?"

"Uh, the attic. I just thought, 'oh god please let it stay over there' and it just happened."

" _Really now?_ "

"Uh, yes."

Pip wondered exactly who his godly parent was before deciding that it wasn't worth it and that she should focus on the monster. She found the entrance to the attic and they went up there.

It had gotten dark outside by now but even in the darkness one could definitely see that there definitely was a struggle in the attic, the wooden walls and floor were pretty damaged. But there was something wrong here, something very wrong.

"Where is the monster?"

Eric remained silent.

" _Where is the monster_?"

"It was supposed to be there," he said, pointing at the right corner of the attic, "I had used my powers to bind it there. But it's loose. Oh god, it's loose."

Eric then broke into a several panicked 'Oh God's before Pip spoke.

"Okay, we need no longer have the advantage and I have a feeling that this is going to get ugly. Stay alert."

They walked down from the attic to the second floor. Pip was on high alert. Eric was being extremely scared. They had reached the stairs to the living room when they heard something from the last door at the end of the hallway.

They stood there for many agonizing moments before the door was liberated from its handles. The monster was tall and somewhat muscular, It bended its head as to not hit its head on the cailing. It looked at them with a single eye.

'Ah shit it's a Cyclops.' She thought.

'AH SHIT IT'S A CYCLOPS.'

The Cyclops picked up the door and threw it at them. Pip took Eric's hand and hurried down a few steps before deciding to jump over the railing down to the first floor. Pip landed with beauty and grace while Eric just flopped to the floor. The Cyclops looked down at them before retreating to one of the rooms. Then they heard a crashing noise coming from the kitchen along with some groaning. It was the Cyclops. It started to throw various objects from the kitchen to the living room, causing dust rise up.

Pip quickly realized that it was trying to shroud itself and was trying to attack from the shadows. But something was off about this. Why was it actively hostile to them? Cyclopes prefer to use trickery to capture their prey. But this one was much more animalistic. And from the few glimpses she had of the thing, it didn't look…normal.

"Eric, can you find your way upstairs?"

"Y-yeah. I guess."

"Hide in the attic. I'll tell you when to come out."

"Uh. Okay. What are you going to do?"

Pip faced the kitchen.

"I'm gonna punch its teeth in."

Pip walked further into the dust cloud. The Cyclops was circling her now. Pip stayed on high alert. Suddenly, the Cyclops charged her. She dodged it but before she could attack it, it retreated into the dust cloud. Strange. Why was it avoiding her? The Cyclops charged her once again and Pip dodged it again. And once again it retreated before she could attack. After the fourth time this happened, Pip started growing suspicious. This was not how normal Cyclops behaved. While yes, she hadn't ever properly fought a Cyclops before, she could tell that this wasn't normal behavior. When the Cyclops charged again, this time she met it head on. She crouched, grabbed it by the waist and threw it against the wall. It howled in pain and then retreated once again. Pip felt uneasy. This didn't feel right, instead of feeling satisfaction for landing a hit on the Cyclops, she felt… _horrible_. And when she had grabbed his waist, she could tell that it was wearing a shirt, but the skin underneath it felt _taut_ , _stretched_ even! Something was very wrong. At this point the Cyclops hadn't tried to attack her yet so she tried a different approach.

She held up her arms.

"Hey, it's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you."

If she was wrong about this, this was going to be the top cringiest memory in her life, next to that one time she said 'that wasn't very cash money of you' in public. But to her surprise, the footprints stopped. The dust began to settle and she got her first proper look at the Cyclops. And she was not prepared for what she was about to see.

What the hell.

_What the hell._

The Cyclops' joints had been forcefully elongated, giving it, or rather him, a gangly look and horrific looking stretch marks. There were strange dark patches over some parts of his arms and legs, which she could tell were what was stretching its joints out. His body, including his hands and feet, were strangely muscular and large but then she noticed that his muscles appeared to be stuffed with… _something_. His skin had been stretched along his bones but she could easily imagine that normally, it would look young. But the worst thing she noticed was the symbol on his tattered shirt.

A while back, this hotshot demigod, Percy Jackson or something, had came to visit Camp. He'd brought along his Cyclops brother, Tyson and Tyson had brought along these younger Cyclopes, Up and coming blacksmiths or something. She remembered being apprehensive of them at first but then warming up to them, even wrestling with one of them. That one was her favorite one, she'd found his shy demeanor rather cute. She had really regretted never getting his name and would have liked to meet him again.

She then realized with a start that she was looking right at him.

"Oh no."

The Cyclops walked up to her, slowly, painfully and croaked one word.

"P…ip?"

Pip held a hand to her mouth, her eyes widened with shock and horror. She stepped closer to him.

"Who did this to you?"

The Cyclopes then looked over her and gave out a cry of fear but before she could turn around, she was hurled straight into a wall. She slumped down the wall and tried to get up but couldn't. She then realized than the reason why was because her _shadow itself_ was preventing her from moving. She turned her head up and saw The Cyclops fall to the ground in fear. But what she couldn't process was the person standing in front of him, clapping.

"Wonderful! Excellent performance, my one-eyed friend. Truly enthralling! Although, I was no slouch either, was I, Miss Pip?"

Eric said, turning his head towards her, with a smile on his face.


	7. By the Pricking of My Thumbs, Something Wicked This Way Comes

Pip stared at him, dumbfounded.

"You…How?"

"Hmm, how?", He said in mock confusion, "That's an odd question isn't it? It can mean so many things. How did you capture this Cyclops? How are you able to do that with the shadows? How did you trick me?"

Pip struggled against her shadow's grip.

"Well, that last question's answer is obvious, it's because you're a good person. A Protector. She who helps lost wayward souls find their way home. Such a good person. Such an idiot."

Eric walked up to her and stared into her eyes with his own, which were having a strange red glint in them.

"Although, I didn't really expect you to know who that Cyclops is. I just picked him randomly from that pack of Cyclopes. Heh, those idiots didn't even bother to do a roll call. Speaking of which."

He then turned to the Cyclops.

"Hey! Great job! You really did do good today. I especially have to mention the whole dust cloud thing, very effective."

The Cyclops turned his head away from him.

"Aw c'mon, don't be so glum. Look at me. Show me that smile."

Immediately he looked at him and smiled. She noticed that Eric was subtly moving his fingers to the Cyclops' actions.

Shadow Puppeteering? Likely.

"Aww. Look at that smile. Such a cute lil' goober ain't ya?"

Eric sighed.

"But then again, all good things must come to an end. You can turn back to normal now."

The Cyclops looked confused before realizing what he meant. His eye widened and he began to say something before a gag made of shadows came over his mouth.

And then the shadows began to leak out of his body, puncturing his flesh. He began to scream and Pip saw his skin stretch even more along his bones now that the materials that created the illusion of mass in his body had disappeared. Then, she heard something break. His joints had started contracting. The physical shadows that were extending his arms, fingers, legs and toes began to break, starting with his right arm. The physical shadows cut through his flesh, escaping his body and merging with his shadow. The skin underneath which the shadows were was crumpled and riddled with holes. He was crying in pain now.

Pip was horrified and saddened. She wanted to get up and cave Eric's skull in, but she couldn't. She glared daggers at Eric, who was simply watching his torture. But something was wrong. Pip, much like any other descendant of Pan, was an empath. She could sense the emotional state of anyone she saw. That was one of her talents, alongside beating people up. She saw Eric looking at the Cyclops and realized that he wasn't feeling anything.

No sick amusement at the expense of others.

No innocent cruelty.

No sadistic joy.

There was no emotion in his face. Nothing.

The bones in his left leg contracted and it was over. The Cyclops was sobbing quietly now. Pip too wanted to sob but she had a feeling that that was exactly what he wanted.

"But unfortunately, I can't let you go. Gotta tie loose ends after all."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a six shot revolver. He pointed it at the Cyclops' head. His eye widened with fear.

Eric pulled the trigger and a spear fired out of its muzzle. It hit the Cyclops dead in its eye and he slowly crumbled to dust.

He turned to Pip and suddenly she realized that the shadows had let her go.

She stood up and looked at Eric, who regarded her with those dark, cold eyes.

"Well, that was quite a show wasn't it?"

Pip charged the demigod, pinning him to the wall and putting her arm to his neck. He said in a strained voice.

"Getting frisky aren't we?"

"You… _Why?"_

"Hmm, this question isn't as vague. But I do believe that you figured it out already, haven't you?"

"What?"

But before she could say anything else, her arms jerked back and stuck to her sides. Eric put a hand around his throat.

"Damn. You could have snapped my neck."

"I should have. Goddamnit. Why didn't I notice it before?"

"Hmm? Were you able to sense me before you met me?"

Eric began to laugh.

"You really are an idiot, aren't you?"

"…What do you want?"

"Hmm?"

" _What do you want_?"

"What I want? Well. It's a rather taxing request, y'know? I'm not sure whether you could fulfill it."

"Shut up and explain your villainous motives so I can beat the shit out of you!"

Eric paused at that before smiling once again.

"Villainous? You give me too much credit. All I want to do is join your little camp!"

"… _What?_ "

"Yeah! Meeting with demigods of my age, participating in fun activities and…whatever else is cool there! Oh how I wish to be a part of that grand scheme! It gets really boring on the streets once you get used to it."

Pip began to laugh.

"You're asking me to take you to Camp? After what you just did? There's no way in Hades that I'm going to agree to that."

Eric looked at her with disappointment.

"You really don't get it, do you? Well, let me tell you something."

He picked up the gun from where he had dropped it.

"See this? On the surface, it just looks like a regular gun, right? And look!", He showed the barrel of the gun to Pip, "It's completely empty!

"But when I fire this thing, it is able to fire bullets, swords, spears, shields, people, basically anything that's not rooted to the ground, ya dig?"

He held the gun sideways in front of his face.  
"So let's say I go outside, and I fire this thing up at the sky. Whatever I fire will dart up into the sky like a regular bullet, and come down. It could be anything, y'know. It could be a speck of dust, a snowflake, a thumbtack, a bullet, a sword, a shield, a spear, another gun, a person, a car, a cruise ship, an intercontinental ballistic missile, The Master Bolt. Point is, I can use anything as ammunition. And here's the best part."

He said, the red glint reappearing in his eyes in the form of a slit, making his eyes look serpentine.

"I don't have any control over it! All I have is the ability to pull the trigger."

And then it hit Pip. The meaning behind his actions.

"This…This whole thing was some sort of twisted character introduction, wasn't it?"

Eric's smile widened from ear to ear.

"Correct! Bingo! Right on the money! But now, there's another thing you have to figure out."

And Pip knew what that was. Whether to bring him to Camp or not.

This should have been easy. Pip absolutely cannot let that thing into Camp. He isn't human. Even if he's a demigod, that thing isn't human. He could very easily endanger everyone at Camp, so she shouldn't let him in. And yet…

She can't let him be free to do whatever he pleases. He doesn't have any self control, he's cold and ruthless and he's pretty much the type to commit gruesome crimes just because he got bored. He's too powerful and to dangerous. He would become a threat to everyone, even Camp half-Blood itself. But if he was at Camp, he could be monitored. Chiron and the others can make sure he stays in line. And yet there's no guarantee that he'll become less dangerous. But it's better than letting him get off scot-free isn't it?

She could try to kill him. But he was extremely powerful, his shadow manipulation and that damned gun of his weren't going to be easy to go up against. Killing him was going to be nigh impossible for her. So those two options are the only options she has

Pip was thinking hard and yet she couldn't find an answer. Should she let him endanger the campers she was sworn to protect? Why was this question so difficult? She hated it. This question was the worst thing she's had to face. It was a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' situation now. And Pip couldn't decide.

She looked at him glaring gleefully at her. This was what all of his elaborate planning was leading to. Forcing her to make this decision. He was reveling in seeing her conflicted and struggling.

In the end, she knew that there was nothing else to do.

"Fine, I'll take you to Camp."

Immediately, she could feel her arms again.

"Splendid! Now, let's make this official. I, Eric L. Smith, would like you to shake my hand." He said, holding out his hand.

Pip did not want to shake his hand but her hand darted towards his and shook it.

As they walked out and headed towards Half-Blood Hill, Pip said to him.

"You're not human."

And to this Eric pondered and said,

"Nah, I'd say I'm the most human of them all."


	8. Campfires, Revelations and A Pretty Neat Trick.

Pip sat on the barracks of the Big House. Within the Old Victorian-style brick house that inhuman demigod chatted away with Dionysus, the Camp Director. Pip was not feeling well. She had been through too much on that damned walk. She had started to regret her decision. What the hell was she thinking? That guy is way too much trouble! He being in Camp is going to be really bad for the campers!

'But if you'd let him loose, he'd just endanger everyone else _including_ the campers, wouldn't he?', a pesky little voice in Pip's brain said.

She was going to tell it to zip it when suddenly someone walked up to her.

Ah, it was her favorite demigod.

Penelope sat next to her. She fumbled a little before asking,

"Are you okay?"

"Huh?", That caught her off guard.

"Um. You looked kinda sad and deep in thought."

"We're you just staring at me this whole time?"

"Uh. Yeah. I just couldn't find a way to approach you. I mean, you looked so sad.", She then looked at her nervously, "I mean, there's nothing wrong with being sad or anything, uh, it's just that I'm not really good at consoling sad people. Uh! Not that you looked too sad or anything! You just looked deep in thought and stuff so didn't really know how to-uh, why are you laughing?"

Pip couldn't help but chuckle at this display.

"Nah, it's nothing. I'm fine."

Penelope raised an eyebrow.

"Okay I'm not that fine right now. It's just…It's too much to talk about."

"Ah. I see."

Penelope went silent for a moment before saying,

"So how did your retrieval mission go?"

"Huh?"

"You had to fetch that demigod, right."  
"Ah.", she clenched the edge of the wooden floor, "That."

Penelope then realized that that was probably what was causing her distress.

"Uh, sorry. I shouldn't have-"

"Listen, stay away from that demigod. Whatever you do, don't come in contact with him. If he tries to talk to you, don't respond. Just stay away from him."

"Uh-"

But before she could say anything, the door to the big house opened and Eric stepped out.

Pip glared at him.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Hmm. Well, I don't know myself. If you're asking what I'm doing here at Camp, I'm just hanging out. If you're asking me why I'm not going to the campfire. Well…"

He put his hand on his neck.

"They're calling you inside. I don't know what they want to talk about, but the Camp Director seemed very pissed.", He said sneering before noticing Penelope.

"Oh hello there!", He held out a hand to Penelope, "Name's Eric, what's yours?"

Penelope, startled, looked at him and stared into his eyes before Pip came in between them.

"Don't you dare. Don't you _dare_ go near her."

Eric paused for a moment.

"Huh, it seems you've got a bodyguard, fellow camper. Neat."

Pip stared at him for a moment before going inside and closing the door. The original Camp Director, Dionysus, looked like he was in a bad mood. She could tell since Seymour, his pet stuffed leopard head was growling at her.

Dionysus spoke with repressed anger.

"Now. Tell me exactly _why_ I shouldn't turn you into Maenad-food this instant."

"Mr.D!"

" _What?_ She brought that thing here! She better have a damn good explanation or I swear to Olympus, I am going to put her head on a mantelpiece."

Pip, being thoroughly intimidated, told the events of the day. And as she did, the wound that was her regret opened up. She had no idea on whether she had done the right thing. And from Dionysus' increasingly frustrated look, she was not doing well. She finished her story and felt sad over the fact that she wasn't able to give her friend a proper goodbye.

"Ah, this is a proper mess for fuck's sake. I know this is going to be another person's mess but damnit, now I can't sleep. Why did you have to make the best possible choice? I can't even kill you now."

Pip was startled.

"What? But I've endangered the rest of the campers!"

"Pip.", Chiron said, "You couldn't do anything in that situation. Killing him would be nigh impossible and letting him go would be wrong. By bringing him here, you've made sure we can keep an eye on him. It may be hard to accept, but that was the best possible choice."

'Huh.', Pip thought. 'I didn't do the wrong thing. I still hate everything about it but at least it was the best possible choice.'

'Well, course it was! That's what I've been trying to say this whole time, you dummy.', the pesky voice said once again.

"Shut up.", she muttered underneath her breath.

"Ah! It appears that you are telling your pesky little brain voice to shut up! I should know since this happened to me multiple times!", someone shouted in her ear.

"Gah!"

Pip stepped back at saw that Apollo had materialized right next to her.

Apollo was about to say something before he noticed everyone staring at him.

"Did I interrupt something?"

Chiron sighed and told him what had happened. Apollo now had a serious expression on his face.  
"Ah, I see. This is a pretty big mess, isn't it?"

"But there's another issue, isn't there?"

Apollo stayed silent.

"That Protector brought two incredibly suspicious demigods who are also conveniently fifteen years old. We're just waiting for you to say it now, aren't we?"

Apollo sighed.

"Look. I don't like this any more than you do. And I know that this prophecy is going to be really bad. But I can't say it myself. I need the Oracle of Delphi."

"Hmph. I don't care. It's your problem now."

Dionysus got up and was about to leave when Apollo stopped him.

"Wait! Won't you come to the campfire at least? You've never attended any of my campfire concerts before!"

"…You're not going to let me leave before I do this, right?"

"Yes."

"Ugh. Fine."

"Then onward we go!"

They went outside. Penelope was staying as far away from Eric as possible, which brought joy and relief to Pip's heart. As they headed to the campfire, Pip leaned towards Penelope.

"Did he say anything to you?"

"What?"

"Did Eric say anything to you?"

"I didn't really engage in conversation with him. We had some small talk and then he just sat around doing nothing. I think he was bored or something."

"Huh. Odd."

"Although he did look at my pendant a lot."

"What?"

"Yeah. It was weird. It looked like he was trying to remember something."

"Really?"

"Yup."

That definitely was weird. Did Eric have some sort of connection to that pendant or something? Pip did not want to think about that. He may have the same level of mystery Penelope did, but she _definitely_ wasn't willing to investigate it.

They reached the campfire and Eric was introduced to the crowd. But then, he was claimed. And everything made a lot more sense.

Something began falling from the sky. It was shiny and golden so everyone noticed. Eric looked up and saw it coming towards him. He caught it in his hand and examined it. It was a golden apple, adorned with serpents, African Blackwoods and a dagger. Eric admired the craftsmanship before biting into it. The other campers watched dumbfounded as he swallowed the piece before looking to the sky.

"Delicious. Thanks for the apple, Ma!"

And suddenly a pit formed in Pip's stomach. Apollo and Dionysus looked at each other nervously and Chiron did his best to hide his surprise and dread.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, Son of Eris."

* * *

Now that Eric was officially the son of the Goddess of Discord, he no longer went for his 'goofy and clumsy' persona and instead went for a 'mischevious and slightly sinister' one, effectively making everyone extremely wary. Even Connor Stoll, who could recognize a fellow prankster when he saw one, was distancing himself from him.

Apollo, Dionysus and Chiron were nervously muttering amongst themselves. Pip could definitely understand their concerns.

Eris was the Goddess of Discord and Strife, feared and revered by the Olympians. She could strike discord into the hearts of their enemies, but who her enemies were wasn't clear half the time. She was the reason why the Trojan War happened. She would cause many wars in the mortal world simply to satisfy her amusement. She was cold and apathetic, but it was said that when she sees people caught up in the chaos she creates, she can't help but feel giddy.

And now her son had come to Camp Half-Blood.

That was one hell of a bad omen.

Aside from that, Pip had brought two mysterious demigods whose godly parents were ones that rarely ever sired children.

Yeah, it's official, there's a big prophecy and she's part of it.

This was giving Pip extreme anxiety. Prophecies were rarely ever good. The two Great Prophecies had resulted in drastic changes in the world, and a lot of casualties as well. The whole _Trirumvirate_ shebang had started because of a mad scramble for the Oracles. Pip was in Protector training at the time but even she heard of the horrifying events that occurred in Southern California. That 'Burning Maze' shit left her unable to sleep for days.

What if this one is exactly like the Great Prophecies?

What if things become as bad as the 'Burning Maze' situation?

Pip was silently cursing Oizys, the goddess of anxiety, when Penelope came up to her and sat near her.

"Oh, hey. What's up?"

"You seemed really worried. What's wrong?"

"Nothing much. Just the whole 'Eric's a son of Eris' thing."

"Eris… Wasn't she the one who started the Trojan War by starting a beauty contest?"

"That's…strangely accurate, actually."

"Huh. That's a bad omen."

"Yup."

"Mom always told me that there's no such thing as a bad omen. What we call a bad omen is merely a sign of change. And change itself isn't good or bad."

"…That's pretty deep."

"But yeah, this is totally a bad omen."

"Yeah."

A harpy then descended and gave her dinner. Which for some reason had canned beans.

"Oh, cool!"

"Canned beans?"

"Yeah. Brings back memories. There was this one time we went hiking in the mountains. I wanted to have some cake once we reached the top of the mountain but I'd only packed baked beans, so we just had to eat canned beans as we saw the sunset. It was pretty cool."

She said, closing her eyes.

"Huh. Who did you go with?"

"Oh, it was me and…"

She froze for a minute before closing her eyes. It looked like she was trying to remember something, but couldn't seem to remember.

"No one else.", She said, finally.

"Mom was never too big on hiking so she didn't really accompany me. I think there was like a tour guide or something but he wasn't really important."

"Then why'd you say 'we'?"

"Did I say we? Must have been a mistake. I meant 'I'."

"…Uh huh."

"No really! I must have meant that."

"Okay."

Another mystery. Pip was starting to get concerned for her. There's a limit to how mysterious a person can get.

Then the hellhound emerged.

Looking back on it, She had no idea how it got there. Maybe there was just a temporary breach in the borders, maybe the maenads just found the thing and adopted it, maybe it was Eric. But no matter how it got there, there was no denying that it was there and it was scaring the living crap out of the new campers.

The Hellhound growled and lunged at the younger demigods. But unfortunately for it, smaller means faster. The younger demigods ran away while the older tried to kill it. But the hellhound was fast.

Chiron and Apollo began to mobilize when Pip saw that Penelope had that look on her face. The same look she had when had approached those monsters all the way back when they first arrived here.

"Penelope."

"Don't worry, Pip. It'll be pretty cool."

"Penelope Hayes, I swear to Pan do _not_ -"

But it was too late. Penelope rushed towards the hellhound, telling everyone to back off 'cuz I'm gonna do something cool'.

The hellhound growled and lunged but Penelope raised her hand. The air in front of her shimmered with magical energy, creating a barrier that then pulsed, knocking the hellhound away. The hellhound attacked again but once again it was sent back.

Then Pip saw that Penelope was staring directly at it.

It is said that in the animal kingdom, staring directly at someone is usually known as a way to challenge someone. Pip knew this since she once met this cat that always thought that everyone was challenging her since her definition of staring basically boiled down to 'looking at her for half a second or more.' Dogs are not exempt to this rule and so are hellhounds.

The hellhound backed away before dashing at her. Pip suddenly felt a disturbance coming from Penelope before the hellhound leaped.

And then Penelope said a word. It was one word, a word said in an ancient language. A language Pip couldn't understand. But that word was important. For just as she said it, the hellhound sabotaged its leap so that it landed just in front of her. He looked at her with expectant eyes and the silver key pendant pulsed, a burst of energy.

If she had been anywhere near her, the pendant would have knocked her out. Everyone seemed to have felt it but Pip was feeling it most. It was drilling into her skull, the sound coursing through her body.

She began to croon in that strange language and the hellhound got sleepier and sleepier.

A strange mist began form around her. But it wasn't The Mist, though it looked like it. It was darker and almost distorted.

Thin, pale hands reached for her out of the Distorted Mist, but the pendant began to pulse harder, dispelling the hands. The Distorted Mist then shifted towards the hellhound and the hands grabbed it.

As the hellhound slept peacefully, the hands slowly dragged it into the earth, dragging it to somewhere deep, deep below them. Pip knew not of where it went, but it sure as hell wasn't the underworld.

Penelope turned around and wiped the sweat off her forehead.

"Whew! That was tough!"

She then saw the crowd staring at her with shock and fear.

"Uh…"

She began to look nervous.

Chiron trotted up to her.

"Big House, now.", He said in an urgent tone.

Chiron, Apollo and Dionysus herded her away from the crowd. Pip ran up to them and joined the party. As they went to the Big House, she heard Eric comment,

"Huh. She just dragged a Hellhound down to Chaos. You don't see that every day."

* * *

Pip was sitting next to Penelope, who was sweating bullets. Across from her, the Big Three of the camp, Chiron, Apollo and Dionysus, were looking at her, working out something to say.

Apollo was the one to break the silence.

"So. You just did that."

"Did what? Magic? I've been able to do it for a long time. Pretty impressive right?"

"Well, yes. It is impressive but I'm talking about the whole 'dragging a hellhound into Chaos' thing."

"Umm. Isn't that supposed to be one of my super awesome, exclusive to really powerful children of Hypnos power?"

"No!", He said incredulously, "That kind of power is reserved for _gods!_ It is _not_ a 'super awesome, exclusive to really powerful children of Hypnos power.'"

"Wh-what?"

"Yes! How are you able to do this?!"

"I-I don't know! I just am!"

Apollo then put his hand on his chin and did his best impression of the Thinker. Then Chiron spoke.

"Penelope, what you did was something most gods can't do. Unless your godly parent is a Protogenoi or something, there is no way you could have done something like this."

"Like I said, I don't know. I was aware of this power a long time back but I only began using it after I got this pendant."

"Hmm. Could the pendant be the source of your power?"

"Uh sir?", Pip said, "If I may throw my take on this, I think that pendant is more of an external buff more than anything. The 'putting it to sleep and summoning that distorted mist' was her but 'the deflecting of the mist onto the hellhound' was the pendant."

"Hmm. That is a good guess, but that doesn't explain how she's able to summon the Distorted Mist in the first place."

They sat in contemplation when suddenly Apollo spoke.

"I got it! It's-"

"The Pull.", Dionysus said.

Everyone looked at him.

"Goodness me, I didn't even think of that! But are you sure?"

"What's 'The Pull?'", Apollo asked.

"It adds up. The hands were trying to grab her first, weren't they?

"Yes, but you're sure it's The Pull? Most demigods afflicted by it don't really-"

"Umm. What exactly are you talking about?", Penelope asked.

Chiron and Dionysus stopped talking. Chiron spoke first.

"The Pull is an affliction that demigods who are descendants of Chaos have. It is not found in those born of the Olympians, or the Titan-born deities but it is found in those born of the gods of the Mansion of Night. These gods include Oizys, Thanatos, Eris and Hypnos."

Dionysus spoke next.

"What it does is that it makes the demigod afflicted close to Chaos. Chaos haunts them in their dreams and if one was to use their inherited powers, they would be dragged all the way down to Chaos.

"It is a terrible curse and one of the reasons why those gods don't really mingle with mortals. It either kills you quick or drives you insane and _then_ kills you, usually the latter."

"Most afflicted don't live past ten. Most don't live past _five_."

"But I've managed to live for a long time."

"Yes. Now how might that be?"

Penelope then looked at her pendant.

"Maybe…Maybe this was the reason."

"The Key?", Apollo said. "Well, it did seem to repel those hands."

"I've always had a really weird dream. A dream where I get dragged to this place that feels like it should give me a headache, but it doesn't."

"That seals it. You have The Pull and that charm is somehow able to weaponize it."

Penelope stayed silent for a moment.

"Mom never told me about that."

"Well, I don't think telling your kid that their superpower comes from what amounts to a Godly STD is a good thing." Pip said.

"Yeah, I guess you're right on that one."

Chiron then spoke to her,

"You said your mother had made the pendant, right?"

"Yes."

"That makes even less sense!", Apollo exclaimed, "If her mother is powerful enough to make something _that_ powerful, then we should have heard about her!"

Mysteries on top of mysteries. Pip's brain was starting to hurt now. Something major about her had been revealed but now she had become even more mysterious.

Chiron decided that now was the time to stop.

"Penelope, I would like you to not talk about this. It may be your choice to tell but something tells me that things would get a lot more hectic for you if you tell them about this."

"No duh."

"Also, would you like a gumball? I've heard that gumballs and other sweets can help you process big things."

"Nah, I'm cool."

Penelope didn't look too cool, but Pip knew that this wasn't an easy thing to accept so she stayed quiet.

They were going to depart when suddenly the door opened.

The dark haired boy, Nico di Angelo, walked in while a shaggy blonde haired boy with blue eyes followed, looking nervous.

"Dad, I tried to stop him but he wouldn't-"

"Apollo." Nico said in a gravelly voice and pointed at Penelope.

"I would to interrogate this girl."


	9. Compromises and Reunions.

Everyone in the room stared at him. Apollo was shocked, Pip was bewildered, Chiron looked grim, the blonde haired boy looked embarrassed and Penelope was _very_ scared.

"That's it. This is your problem now.", Dionysus said and promptly teleported out of the Big House back to Olympus, where he was probably going to drown the memories of this day in copious amounts of wine and Diet Coke.

Chiron spoke slowly.

"An interrogation?"

"Yes. I want to interrogate this girl."

"Why?"

"Is it not obvious?"

Chiron paused. Pip looked at Nico. He was staring directly at Penelope with his cold, dark eyes. She remembered something. A while back she had seen him and the blonde haired boy return from their mission in Tartarus. Apparently that mission had been a success and they were met with a hero's welcome. But Nico did not look that happy, he looked nervous, a little high-strung even.

From that day everyone could tell that he was worried about something. He started growing paranoid, becoming wary of every new camper that arrived in Camp Half-Blood. Eventually this paranoia died down and he relaxed a little.

But now, as he stared at Penelope, she saw panic in his eyes.

Ah, she's his target. Penelope was in deep shit now.

Apollo spoke in a concerned tone.

"Okay, maybe she did something unnatural, but is that really enough incentive for an interrogation?"

"Apollo. She's able to send things to _Chaos_ , the realm that can literally kill gods. I think that warranties an interrogation."

"Well. Why are you interrogating her?", Pip said, "That Eric is probably more interrogation worthy than her."

Nico looked at Pip.

"You are the one who brought him here, right?"

"Y-yes.", she said, her confidence draining.

"Well, I think you are aware that he is a Son of Eris, the Goddess who is known for being unpredictable and insane. Investigating him would be a waste of time. But this girl, Penelope, on the other hand."

He looked at her.

"She is infinitely more suspicious."

Penelope did her best to hide her fear. She was failing.

"A girl with the ability to do magic by manipulating the Mist despite not being a Daughter of Hecate, wearing a strange powerful magic pendant comes out of nowhere into Camp Half-Blood. At that point she was just a curiosity. But now…There's no way around it, I have to find out what her deal is."

Pip gulped. She knew something like this would happen to her sooner or later. Someone would get curious and try to investigate. But why'd it have to be now? And why'd it have to be the scariest person in Camp?

Apollo and Chiron were looking at each other. She could see what they were thinking. If they let Nico have his way, then this could very much be a private affair. If they could make him swear to not open the results of this interrogation, then there would not be too much of a problem. Penelope would not be forced to share her secrets to the public and they could find out more about her. But would it really be worth putting her through the trauma of being interrogated by _Nico_? He was known for beign extremely powerful and _extremely_ scary. And he was definitely going to play bad cop.

On the other hand, if they refused his proposal, it had the potential of creating complete chaos. The other campers would be desperate to know what happened and while Nico would not tell them, the blonde haired boy could spill the beans. Then Penelope will be under stress the likes of which would not have been seen in this Camp. There was also the scenario of Nico going vigilante and interrogating her on his own.

That would be bad.

 _Very_ bad.

Now, they were stuck between a rock and a hard place. And Nico was starting to lose his patience.

Pip was contemplating taking Penelope and running away when suddenly Apollo snapped his head up.

It was as if he had sensed something.

He began to shift everyone to the side.

"Uh, Apollo?", Chiron asked, "What are you-"

"SHH! She's here."

But before he could ask who, the door slammed open. A short girl with pageboy hair and glasses wearing a teal jacket ran in, rolled youthfully and jumped high in the air.

She barreled towards Apollo as he raised his hand.

The girl raised her hand as well and the two hands came in contact with one another.

The sound of a high five filled the room as Pip engraved that image in her head. Historians will point to this moment as the high five that shook the earth. A high five so powerful and awesome that the heavens trembled from the shockwaves it sent.

Pip resisted the urge to say 'PERFECT', as did everyone else in that room, except Nico, who looked like his day had gone from bad to worse.

As Pip tried to process the awesomeness that just occurred in front of her, Apollo greeted the girl.

"Took you long enough, didn't it?"

The girl smiled, the rhinestones in her glasses shining.

"One whole month. But yes, I'm back, Lester."

Apollo chuckled before saying warmly,

"Welcome back, Meg."

Pip's stomach did a somersault.

Meg McCaffery.

THE Meg McCaffery.

The strongest Daughter of Demeter.

The demigod who took down the Triumvirate with Apollo.

The descendant of Demeter who mananged to bring the Meliai, the _first dryads_ , back to life.

That Meg McCaffery.

She was revered among the dryads and satyrs. She was practically a _celebrity!_

And she was standing right in front of her.

"Oh my Gods! You're Meg McCaffery?"

Meg turned to her.

"Why yes, that's who I am.", she said smugly.

"Huh, funny. I thought you'd be bigger."

"Yeah.", she said, her eye twitching, "Funny how that works."

Meg turned to Apollo.

"So what did I miss?"

"Oh nothing, really. We just got two new campers."

"Cool."

"One of them is standing right next to you."

Meg turned to Penelope.

"Oh, hi! Name's Meg. Welcome to Camp.", She held out her hand.

"Oh, uh, thanks." She said, shaking it.

"And Nico wants to interrogate her."

Meg turned to Nico, squinting.

"Nickelodeon Man!"

"Didn't I tell you to not call me that?"

"Okay, Apollo, tell me what's happening."

They explained the current situation to her. Chiron made sure that 'the Pull' wasn't mentioned. Penelope was still processing that after all.

After they finished, she narrowed her eyes at Nico.

"So you're telling me that the reason why you're trying to interrogate her is because she has a super scary power."

"…I guess you could say that."

"Don't you have super scary powers?"

Nico sighed.

"Look, I get where you're coming from. But I don't think my powers are anywhere near _dragging people to Chaos_."

"Chaos Schmaos, it doesn't change the fact that you sound hypocritical and paranoid."

Nico fell silent.

"Huh, she's got a point, you know?", the blonde guy said.

"Shut up, Will."

Penelope looked relieved, maybe she wasn't going to get interrogated today.

"But, you do have a point."

Meg turned to Penelope.

"No offence, but you are kinda suspicious."

Penelope was startled.

"S-so what's going to happen to me?"

"Well, you're not going to get interrogated."

Penelope breathed a sigh of relief.

"Instead, we're going to put you on trial!"

"Wh-What?!"

Everyone looked at her.

"A trial? Trial for what?", Apollo said.

"A trial to determine whether she's cool or drool!

"…Okay that was a bad one."

"Well, while this is a valid way of approaching it, wouldn't it be too public?", Apollo said.

"Hmm, you're right. Therefore, this trial shall have no Jury!"

"This is starting to sound like a kangaroo court.", Penelope remarked.

"Hey! Kangaroo courts are some of the least corrupt courts in the world!", Pip retorted.

"So.", Meg pointed at Penelope, "You're the defendant."

"I guess so."

"Nico is the prosecutor."

"I _have_ to agree to this, don't I?"

"Will is the prosecutor's counsel."

"Haven't got a problem with that."

"I'm going to be the lawyer and the satyress will be my counsel."

"Uh, Miss McCaffery, you do know how court works right-"

"And Chiron can be the Judge."

"I guess I should go find those grey robes I had, then."

"And what about me, The Great Apollo?"

"You can be the Bailiff, I guess."

Apollo simply locked his arms together and sulked.

"The Courtroom can be the Hades Cabin and the time should be tomorrow at ten o clock in the morning. Does everyone agree with these conditions?"

Everyone, including Nico and Apollo, hesitantly said yes.

"Now then, let's just go to sleep, man. It's been a long journey here."

"Yes, I agree.", Chiron said, "Let us rest, for today has been an eventful day."

Pip and the demigods went out of the Big House. Nico and Will walked together to the cabin site. Meg gave Penelope a thumbs up and a 'Good luck' before leaving.

Now it was just Penelope and Pip.

"Well, I guess that's that. See you at the trial."

Penelope was looking down at the ground. She seemed to want to say something.

Pip was going to ask her what she wanted to say when she said nervously,

"D-do you think I'm an enemy?"

"What?"

"Th-that boy Nico, the look in his eyes, he thought I was going to do something bad, right? Do you think-"

But before she could say anything else, Pip walked up to her, put her hands on her shoulders, brought her close and said to her face,

"No."

"Wh-why?"

"Because I know you're a good person. And nothing that anyone says will change that."

"P-Pip…", She looked at her with those amber eyes, filled with gratitude and relief unimaginable. They were pretty close now. She smelled of poppies.

Pip then realized what she did and backed away, blushing furiously.

"Uh, um. I'll…be going to my sleeping quarters. The place where I sleep. On a bed. S-see you at the trial tomorrow!"

"S-see you."

And so Pip ran back to her living quarters in the Camp's forests, still blushing and still extremely flustered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Lesbian Rights." - Sun Tzu, The Art Of War.


	10. The Trial of Penelope Pt.1

January 4, 9:50 AM

Camp Half-Blood

Outside Hades Cabin

Pip, Penelope and Meg were standing before the doorsteps of the Hades Cabin, waiting for the courtroom to be prepared.

Today was the day. It was Penelope's trial.

Or rather, it was an interrogation but with several people.

After all, Meg seemed to want to do something 'attorney-like' for today.

But this did seem to be less stressful to Penelope. She was more scared about being ganged up on by everyone else because of her 'suspiciousness.' People being there to defend her was probably very reassuring for her. Then there was what happened last night…

Pip started blushing. Oh gods, that was the most embarrassing thing she'd done in a long time. It was just as bad as that time she tried to flirt with that Roman dryad and found out that she was already dating someone. That was awkward. But she liked to think that helped. And judging by how shy Penelope was being around her, she knew she was correct.

Pip leaned over to Meg and whispered.

"So how is this going to work out?"

"Well? It'll be easy! The prosecution will do its thing, I'll turn the tables and prove her innocence and then we'll all get back to our daily lives!"

"But the prosecution has no evidence or testimonies!", Penelope said.

"Like I said, easy."

"And neither does the defense!"

"…Still easy."

"I know you're doing this to help me, but this whole trial just seems like one big farce."

"Ok, _maybe_ the court record is emptier than a _blemmyae's_ head. But that's not the point! Whatever happens in court today, I swear that I will not fail to get you a Not-Guilty verdict."

Pip was pretty sure that Meg had no idea what she was doing but Penelope did seem to feel _slightly_ comfortable at Meg's words. Slightly.

The door opened and out in a bailiff's uniform came Apollo.

"Well, everything's prepared, you may enter the courtroom."

He then said in a low voice,

"You guys are prepared, right?"

"Uh, yeah.", Meg replied.

Apollo breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good, cause from what I overheard last night, the prosecution is _not_ messing around. He's even got witnesses!"

Pip felt the mood shift. The defense was a lot more nervous now. She felt a wave of panic coming from Penelope before it was suppressed.

Holding their breaths, they stepped into the courtroom.

January 4, 10:00 AM

Camp Half-Blood

Inside Hades Cabin

The Hades Cabin looked imposing enough from the outside with its obsidian walls and Greek Fire torches and the spooky scary skull on the front door but inside was a whole 'nother kind of imposing.

The living room had been rearranged to look like a courtroom, with the bunks taking the place where the jury would sit. Three large coffins had been placed on the Judge's, prosecution's and defense's stands and simple desks were used for the defendant's and the witness' stands.

Chiron was at the Judge's stand, wearing grey robes and holding a wooden gavel.

Nico and the blonde boy, Will Solace, as she had found out, were at the Prosecution's stand. Will waved at them while Nico glowered specifically at Meg.

Pip and Meg made their way to the Defense's stand and Penelope went to the defendant's stand.

"It seems that everyone is present. Very well, Court is now in session for the trial of Penelope Hayes.", Chiron declared.

"The defense is ready, Your Honor!", Meg said boldly.

"The prosecution is ready, Your Honor.", Nico said coldly.

"Very well, the prosecution may give their opening statement."

Nico took a deep breath and started.

"Your Honor. As you may know already I had considered the defendant, Penelope Hayes, to be a very suspicious person. In order to verify this I wanted to interrogate her. But instead, I've been forced to participate in this trial. A trial that has rushed all the way to Hades.

"Neither the prosecution, nor the defense, has any form of evidence or testimony. I particularly blame this on the impulsiveness of the defense, who I'm pretty sure is trying to 'LARP' a lawyer video game. Speaking of which,"

He looked at Meg.

"Why didn't you request for even a day of investigation? Have you even played past the first case?"

"I- So what?!"

"Wait, you haven't played past the first case?", Penelope said, shocked.

"I watched a video of it while I was travelling back to Camp."

" _What?!_ "

"I was busy, okay!"

Nico slammed the table and the room went quiet.

" _The point is,_ none of us have any evidence to make concrete cases."

"Hmm. That does seem to be the case." Chiron said, scratching his beard. "What does the prosecution propose?"

"I propose that we have the defendant testify on the matters the prosecution requests."

"Hmm. I don't see why not. It can provide valuable evidence after all."

"Thank you, Your Honor. Before I begin, I would like to say something to the defense."

"What do you wish to say?", Meg inquired.

"As you know, the conditions of this trial are that if your defendant isn't 'Guilty' I will stop pursuing her."

"Th-that is the condition yes."

"However, if she turns out to be 'Guilty', in other words, a threat to Camp Half-Blood."

He stared fiercely at them.

"I will _personally_ make sure she never sets foot in this Camp again, is that clear?"

Meg gulped.

"C-clear."

"Good. Now."

He turned to Penelope.

"Defendant. There is something I'd like for you to testify."

"Y-yes?"

"I have heard that you had previous knowledge of Camp Half-Blood. Tell us what you knew and how exactly you acquired it."

Pip was caught off guard by this. Apollo was right, he really _had_ prepared!

"O-okay! I didn't really know that much about Camp before coming here but I had heard about it from my mom. She simply told me that it was a summer camp for 'special people like me'."

"I see. So how did you get here in the winter?"

"Oh! Uh, M-Mom just said that they accept people even in the winter."

"Hmm. I have also heard that you were found sleeping on a bench when you were discovered by your Protector."

"Y-yes. Mom told me to sit there on the bench and wait. Apparently someone was going to pick me up. While waiting for that someone, I kinda dozed off."

"Hmm. I see. When was this?"

"The afternoon I guess? I didn't really check the time."

That got Pip thinking. She was sensed the signal during her morning walk and she had found her during the evening, at around four to five o'clock. Yet the signal seemed to have been triggered by sleep. So what was happening? She could have been wrong about the signal being triggered by sleep but it wouldn't make sense for it to be triggered all the time. There was something fishy going on.

She then looked at Nico. He seemed to be thinking about something.

Then it hit her. He must be thinking the exact same thing. He seemed to possess her testimony from when she had to report her mission to the Camp authorities so he's got the same information she did. He could use this strangeness to his advantage. In other words, Penelope had just given him a weapon.

Penelope seemed to realize this too. Anything she said could be used against her, so she had to be careful. And now she had given him ammunition for his case. She was mortified.

"I see. Now then, there is another matter that needs to be resolved. And that matter is about her powers."

Ah, he was moving on to the juiciest part. Pip could feel a sense of anticipation in the courtroom.

Then she heard something. The voice of a person echo through the courtroom.

"And so we move on to the best part."

Everyone was startled. They looked for the source of the voice.

"Who goes there? Show yourself!", Chiron exclaimed.

And then the owner of the voice revealed himself. And Pip's stomach lurched.

Eric stepped forward from behind the pseudo courtroom.

Pip glared at him venomously.

" _What the hell are you doing here?_ "

Eric sneered at her.

"Well someone's pissed."

"Wha-who is that?", Meg said.

"Oh, I'm just one of the new campers, name's Eric L. Smith."

"Uh, nice to meet you too.", Meg greeted back, slightly unnerved.

"How did you get here, Eric?", Chiron asked.

"Well, I tried to bribe the bailiff at the front door but he seemed to take his job seriously so I just used the backdoor."

Nico looked confused.

"We don't have a-…You _little-"_

"Come on now, is that any way talk to the guy who got you a free Lamborghini?"

" _You rammed a Lamborghini into my Cabin?!_ "

"No need to thank me.", he said with a smug look on his face.

Chiron sighed.

"Why are you here, Eric?"

"Well, for starters, I wanted to know what was going on here. The prosecution was sleuthing out clues in the middle of the night, after all. After I got in here and listened to you all bullying this poor girl here-"

"Wait we're not bullying her!", Meg said

"I decided to become the Jury!"

"A one man Jury? How novel.", Nico said amused. Then his voice turned cold, as it was prone to do.

"Just what makes you think that I won't order the bailiff to kick you out of this courtroom?"

"Well…"

Then they heard loud sobbing coming from behind them.

"CASSANDRA WHAT DID THEY DO TO YOU?!"

"That."

"Well," Chiron sighed. "It seems that the bailiff is no longer in a mood to uphold his duties,"

"MY LIFE IS MEANINGLESS!"

"So we have no choice but to… _tolerate_ his presence."

"Thank you for your kindness." He said and propped himself on one of the bunks.

"May I continue my previous statements, Your Honor?"

"You may, Prosecutor di Angelo."

Nico paused for a moment to think how cool that title sounded before continuing,

"As I was saying before the Jury somehow drove a Lamborghini in without us noticing."

"I'd tell you how, except I won't."

"The matter of Penelope's powers is a mystery to most of us. She is able to do Magic without being a Daughter of Hecate, has some kind of connection to Chaos and holds a Magic Construct that is obscenely powerful. I have prepared witnesses to try to explain the first two, but before that."

He slammed the coffin for emphasis.

"Defendant, I would like you to testify to the court about your connection to Chaos.", he said harshly.

Ah, straight to the point. Pip looked at Penelope nervously. She wondered what exactly she was going to say but then,

"Um. Your Honor?"

"Yes?"

"W-will my testimony be made public? I'm still in the middle of processing that information, you see."

Chiron looked at her and said,

"Yes, you may testify about your condition."

Will looked a little alarmed at the word 'condition' but before he could ask, she started.

As she told everyone in the court about 'The Pull' she could see many reactions. Meg was began to feel pity for her and then a resolve to prove her innocent. Will felt immense amounts of guilt and was ashamed, probably about siding with Nico. Nico himself seemed to feel some amount of regret but he seemed to ignore it, as his he was steeling his resolve to brand her as a threat. Eric didn't seem to care. He was simply looking at them with amusement.

But strangely enough, as Penelope testified, Pip saw that she felt relieved. She finally had a name for the curse that had been haunting her life. And now she could accept it. At least, that was what she wanted to believe. In truth, Pip thought that something like 'The Pull' can't be accepted. Most people who had it _died_. And Penelope was probably the only person who survived it. Accepting something like that could take years. Which was why it made sense that Pip also felt uncertainty in her voice.

After Pip finished, Nico sighed.

"In summary, you have a curse that should have killed you and driven you insane but you're protected from it because of your pendant."

"Yes."

Then, to Pip's surprise, he smirked.

"This means that you are admitting to the fact that the pendant protects from 'The Pull', am I correct?"

Something was wrong.

"Y-yes."

"Ergo, you are claiming that your pendant is _just_ _a simple defense charm_ thatdefends you from 'The Pull'. Am I correct?"

Oh.

OH.

Pip stood there like a deer in the headlights of a car. She remembered that initially, she was afraid to approach Penelope due to the Silver Key Pendant. It seemed to have some kind of strange power in it. Later, Pip had hand-waved it away since it was a protection charm against Chaos. But now she was being confronted with the truth. If it really was a protection charm, even if it was against Chaos, there was no reason for it to be this powerful!

Nico had realized this and was going to use it to get more evidence against her!

Penelope had realized this too, and was deciding on what to say. Then, she answered his question.

"Yes."

Pip felt relief. The prosecution had no means of telling whether her statement was a lie. It was a major blow against his case. The trial was shifting in her favo-

"Objection. There is a contradiction in the defendant's testimony."

Well shit.

"What?!", Meg exclaimed.

"Prosecutor di Angelo, what is the meaning of this?!"

"It is simple, Your Honor. The defendant claims that the pendant she possesses is a 'simple defence charm.' However, this statement is false!

"A simple defense charm should not have this kind of power! The testimonies of the eyewitnesses did state that a surge of magical power was felt from the defendant's pendant when she banished that hellhound to Chaos. The testimonies of the Council of the Wild, the Dryads and the Nereids also state that the felt a strange surge of power on the 31st of January at 9:14 PM, the same time as the defendant's little stunt. And from the testimony of the Palikos, the Mymerkes felt it, the _Mymerkes_."

He slammed the coffin.

"Explain to me exactly how a 'simple defense charm' can accomplish that!"

Pip urgently whispered to Meg.

"He has a point."

"Shut up."

"He's winning the trial!"

"Shh! Not yet he isn't."

Meg turned to Nico.

"You do make a fair point, but do tell us, what exactly does this prove?"

Nico fell silent.

"You have only proved the possibility that the pendant is not what it seems! None of us here know how magical artifacts work! Ergo, you don't have decisive evidence to prove that the pendant is not a defense charm! So take that!"

"Hmm. So that's your comeback? I don't have decisive evidence?"

Meg froze.

"Y-yes! Of course! You have no evidence."

Nico smirked.

"You are correct! I have no evidence!

"However." He pointed at Meg. "I have something better! Witnesses!"

"Wh-WHAAAAAAAT?!"

Pip gulped. Apollo had warned them that he had prepared witnesses and now they could see that that wasn't a bluff. He really would stop at nothing to get decisive evidence.

"The prosecution calls Lou Ellen Blackstone and Mary Castle to the stand!"

"The Hecate Campers?", Chiron mused. "Very well, Bailiff?"

Apollo, who looked like he had been sobbing uncontrollably for the past hour, walked in.

"Please bring the requested Campers to the Hades Cabin."

Apollo nodded sadly and headed out.

"While we wait for the witnesses to arrive, the defense and prosecution should reconvene. In other words, the court shall enter recess. We shall continue after the witnesses have arrived."

January 4, 10:50 AM

Camp Half-Blood

Outside Hades Cabin

The defense and the defendant stepped outside the courtroom. After a few moments of silence, the defendant spoke.

"Um, Meg? Pip? I gotta ask. WHAT IN THE HECK WAS THAT?!"

"I HAVE NO IDEA! WHY IS HE SO WELL PREPARED?!"

"I'M LITERALLY DEAD IN THE WATER JUST THROW ME INTO THE LAKE."

"THIS IS NOTHING LIKE ACE ATTORNEY!"

As Meg and Penelope sobbed at the top of their lungs, Pip realized exactly how bad their current situation was. But Pip knew that panicking won't solve anything.

She looked at the two screaming children and yelled.

"QUIET!"

Both of them stopped crying.

"Okay, what do we know?"

"Well, the prosecution has evidence, testimonies and witnesses. Which is much more than we have." Meg said.

"Right, let's try to change that. Penelope?"

"Yes?"

"Nico is targeting you via the pendant you have. I think he believes there's some kind of incriminating evidence in it. So what I want you to do is tell us everything you know."

"Uh. I have a confession to make."

"You don't know anything about this pendant, do you?"  
"Um. I do know that if I squint really hard at someone for 10 seconds straight it starts vibrating and then these funky letters show up!"

"…Odd. But not enough! That thing is way too powerful! It must have more than a few functions!"

"I-I don't really know too much, but Mom does! She's the one who made it after all!"

"Hmm. The DelphOS mobiles have a pre-registered call data on them, containing numbers from dear family members. But you can't put new numbers in, you'll have to submit it to Apollo. I remember trying to put my dryad friend Joshua's number but it took days for it to be received." Meg explained.

"And, no offence, I don't think your Mom's number is there, considering the fact that none of us know anything about her at the moment." Pip said.

"That's fair. Mom is kinda secretive about her personal information. But does this mean I have no way of contacting her?"

"Well, we can try Chiron's computer! He's the only person who hasn't gotten DelphOS installed so we could be able to host a video call from there."

"Are you sure? He's the Judge, you know."

"Eh, we can just say that you were feeling homesick, he won't be able to resist that."

"Huh. We actually have a plan!" Meg said, beaming.

"But what about Nico?"

"Eh, I don't think he'll even dare to object to Chiron, He's the Camp Counselor! Doing that would mean defying the authorities! And that is a horrible idea only idiots would try to do."

"…Aren't you the one who stole a bike from some guy just to do your job?"

"Well, if you do a bad thing to do a good thing it automatically cancels out and you are free to do whatever you want."

"...You have a strange moral compass, my friend."

"Eh, whatevs. We should probably get this done before- oh gods." Pip said, as she saw Apollo approaching with two other Campers.

"So much for that plan." Penelope said miserably. "Well, you two have fun, I'll just go sleep with the fishes in the lake or something."

"Wait." Meg said, and grasped her arm. "I told you that I would get you a non guilty verdict. I'm not backing up on that promise."

"The prosecution is _far_ ahead of us. There's no way we can-"

"Look. I'm aware of that. I'm aware that our case isn't very good. I'm aware that the prosecution is far more powerful. But I don't care. I don't care about all that. I don't care about why he's doing this or how he's going to 'win' this trial. All I see is someone trying to ruin another person's whole camp experience over some dumb reason. And I'm not going to stand by and let that happen."

Meg raised her arm and pointed her fist at Penelope.

"Let's kick some butt in there."

Seeing this, Pip raised her fist as well.

"Yeah, let's go, Penelope."

Penelope remained silent for some time. Then she looked at both of them, determination welling up inside of her.

"You know what? Yeah! I'm not gonna be declared guilty today! Let's do this!"

She raised her fist and fist-bumped the other two. Seeing the two, Pip understood that a resolve had been made. They weren't going to lose today. And even if they were outmatched, they were going to go down swinging.

As Apollo approached, the three stepped back into the courtroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it! We've Caught up with the ff.net version. Now to wait for my writers block to leave! See ya in the next chapter, also do leave comments.


	11. The Trial of Penelope Pt.2

January 4, 11:05 AM

Camp Half-Blood

Inside Hades Cabin

The defense and the defendant went down to their seats. The trial was going to get harder from here on out. Nico was willing to crush any defense that would stand in his way. Pip still couldn't understand why. She knew that he seemed to be acting out of sheer paranoia but what exactly made him so paranoid in the first place? But that was beside the point for now. They had to win this case. For Penelope.

The bailiff, along with the witnesses, stepped into the courtroom.

There were two of them. A girl with black hair and green eyes wearing a maroon jacket. Pip recognized her as Lou Ellen Blackstone, since she had once seen her in the forest inspecting various herbs. The other girl she didn't recognize. She was small, probably a twelve year old, and had mousy brown hair. She wore a dress that looked strangely gothic Lolita to her and her eyes were also quite strange, one being deep blue while the other neon green.

As they went to their stands, everyone noticed that the desk was too big for Mary.

"Hmm. I do believe we need a stool for her to stand on." Chiron said.

Then, without warning, Eric raised his gun and fired.

A big cardboard package flew directly above the witnesses' heads and landed behind them.

All eyes turned to Eric.

"You're welcome."

Chiron cleared his throat.

"Eric, do refrain from using your gun in court."

"Aw, don't worry Old Colt. I have excellent trigger discipline."

He then pointed at Meg and fired.

A BB gun bullet struck her index finger.

"Ow!" She went and sucked her index finger.

"See, I fired _on purpose_."

Everyone was glaring at him now.

" _Eric._ "

"Alright, alright. Here." He put the gun back in his pocket. "I have holstered the gun."

They still glared at him before returning to business. Mary had put herself up on the package, after all.

Nico turned to the witnesses.

"Witnesses. State your names and occupations."

"Are you really going to make me say that? You know who I am."

Nico glared at her.

"Alright fine. I'm Lou Ellen Blackstone, Hecate Cabin's Counselor."

The girl didn't answer.

"Don't be shy, say your name." Will (who Pip had forgotten was even there in the first place) said gently.

The girl stayed silent for a moment, looking at the Prosecution, before saying.

"Are you two lovers?"

Nico, taken aback, blushed.

"Mary! You don't say things like that!" Lou scolded.

"Two lawyers…who are also lovers? Hau! That is so romantic! Just like one of my Japanese animes!"

Will was looking to the side with his hand on his neck, blushing while Nico was glowering at the witnesses, which was hard to take seriously on account of his extremely flustered face.

"Two Prosecutors, one kind and radiant, the other dark and cold. Together, they're unstoppable. But can they win their cases in the court…of love? Uuu! So romantic!~ This is truly Honmono no Ai!"

Nico slammed the coffin.

"Name. And. Occupation."

"Well alright! I am Mary Castle! The Walking Grimoire of Cabin #20! I am an encyclopedia of occult knowledge! I have studied all grimoires and magical tomes under the sun! I know of all types of magic! No magical artifact shall escape my Mystic Eye! I-"

Lou then hit Mary's head.

"Ow."

"We're in a court. You can monologue later."

"But my monologue!"

'Are these witnesses or a comedy duo?' Pip thought as she saw Mary puff up her cheeks and pout.

"… _Anyways_. Witness." Nico said to Mary.

"Yes?"

"I have heard that you have experience in magical artifacts-"

"But of course! I, the Walking Grimoire, am an expert on magical artefacts! In fact, my Mystic Eye of Analysis allows me to discern the true nature of ANYTHING!"

She looked around at the members of the courtroom.

"Those rings are swords made of Ashwood and reinforced with Celestial Bronze, enchanted with Polymorph Magic so that they can convert to a more discreet forme!"

"That is a Stygian Iron blade, forged in the Forges of Elysium and gifted to you by Charon!"

"That gun is a godly weapon made by Eris herself! Which also has some other goddy stuff in it, weird."

"And the package I'm standing on is full of cabbages!"

Mary paused.

"Who orders cabbages by express delivery?"

"Maybe a cabbage merchant?" Lou chimed in.

"Oh, his cabbages are gone then. Poor guy."

" _Anyways._ As you all can see, the witness is quite talented at discerning the true nature of even mundane objects." Nico said.

Pip gulped, she _was_ pretty good at whatever the hell Nico just said. She could definitely figure out what's up the pendant. If there was anything incriminating, she would instantly find it. Their gambit was about to end miserably.

"Witness, please examine-"

"Nah."

Nico stopped and blinked.

"What did you say?"

"Nope. Not gonna do it."

Wait what?

Pip was confused.

"Witness. Do kindly tell us why you won't do what I brought you here to do." Nico said, his voice even colder than before.

"Well, that's cuz I'm gonna do my thing first! _Then_ I'll do your thing."

"Yeah, we had an agreement. We'll help you get 'decisive evidence' in return for… you know." Lou said.

Nico sighed.

"Can't this wait after the trial?"

"Hah! We know that you're going to do everything to get her kicked out. We won't have time to question her after that!"

"Q-question?" Penelope said, surprised.

Nico pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Well, so much for this ending early." He muttered.

"Your Honor, can the witnesses question the defendant on…"

"Her magic." Lou said.

"Yes, that."

That got Pip's attention. Penelope had always been able to do magic. Her mother was a 'witch', after all. Were they going to get a detailed explanation? This should answer a few questions.

"Hmm. I don't see why not. Does the defense agree?"

Meg thought for a minute and then said.

"Yes, Your Honor."

"Very well. Witnesses, you may question the defendant."

"Thanks Chi- I mean, thank you, Your Honor. Now."

Lou turned to Penelope.

"Uh, Penelope Hayes, right?"

"Yes. That is my name."

"I am Lou Ellen, The Counselor of Hecate's Cabin. Basically, I'm the leader."

"O-okay."

"Hecate's children have the power to manipulate the Mist. We can use it cast illusions, conceal things, make people see what they want to see and cast spells. We can even imbue it into certain objects and give them various powers. But you. You take the Mist inside of you, metabolise it and use the created energy to beckon the elements to you! I have never seen anyone do that! So now I ask of you. How?"

"…Wait, you don't do magic like that?"

"Exactly! You're the first person I've seen who is able to do magic like that! And how are you even able to do it in the first place! You're a Child of Hypnos!"

"Well that's because my mom is a witch."

"YOUR MOM IS A WITCH?!", Mary said, her eyes sparking.

She jumped off the package and ran up to Penelope.

"What was she the Witch of?"

"What?"

" Was she a Witch of Time? Resurrection? Origins? Certainty? Miracles? Was she a Voyager? Was she a _Golden_ Witch? Was she an _Endless_ Witch? Was your mother The Golden Witch Beatr- Ow."

Lou had walked up to Mary and was now pulling her by the ear back to the witness stand.

"Mary, how many times have I told you? Witches aren't real and Beatrice is just a fairy tale."

"No! I refuse! Witches are real and so is Beatrice! Like on that magical day, I'll say 'I want to Believe!' Any counter arguments against me are Useless! All Useless!"

Mary then cackled very much like a witch while Lou gave up and introduced her face to the palm of her hand.

"…Um, I don't get the reference." Penelope said, very confused.

"Neither do I." Lou said, tiredly.

"But my mom isn't really a 'witch' like what Mary's thinking."

Mary stopped cackling and stared at her.

"Huh?"

"She only _calls herself_ a witch. In more modern terminology, she's a magus."

That caught their attention. Mary just went 'oh' and looked disappointed while Lou did a double take and stared at her.

"Your mom's a magus?! YOU'RE A MAGUS?!"

"I mean, that's cool I guess."

"Hmm. This is the first time I have heard this term." Said Nico.

"Witness, can you tell the court what exactly that means?" Chiron asked gently.

"Okay, s-so this is, like, a super long and convoluted subject but basically, Magi are the high elite of the Children of Hecate. They're the most powerful and wise of the Children of Hecate and they're like, _actual legends_ in the magic community. A lot of advancements in demigod equipment and weaponry were the results of the Magi's hard work, not to mention their work in the fields of spellcrafting, alchemy, crafting of demigod weaponry and like, _all of the magical sciences_. Like, did you know that the concealment spells implemented in demigod weaponry were made by a Magus way back in ancient times called-"

"In summary." Nico interjected, banging the coffin. "Magi are really powerful demigod Children of Hecate."

"U-uh yeah."

"Wait… Does that mean I'm Hecate's granddaughter?" Penelope asked.

"Uh duh?" Meg said.

"Then that means that the whole of the Hecate cabin are my mom's siblings! Making Lou my…aunt."

The courtroom went silent.

"A-and if I'm her aunt, that makes Mary…"

More silence. Much like any discussion about Greek family trees, things were getting weird, awkward, weirdly awkward and awkwardly weird.

"Objection! I object to this line of questioning! _Please_ change the subject!" Meg shouted, breaking through the awkward silence.

"I agree with the defense on this." Nico said, visibly uncomfortable.

"And I agree with everyone on this." Chiron declared. "Objection sustained. Witness, kindly refrain from talking about this."

"Hmph, just when it was getting good." Eric muttered to himself.

"Now that _that_ conversation is dealt with," Nico turned to the witnesses. "Witness Mary Castle, you may now examine the pendant."

"Really? But I still haven't talked to her about True Name Magic!"

"Well, I'm sorry but my patience is running thin and- wait what did you say?"

"You know, her True Name magic. She was able to subdue that hellhound with it?"

Pip stood on high alert. True Name Magic, a type of magic that allows to user to discern the True Name of anything, person, deity or inanimate object. At least, that's what Pip grasped from the use of the term just now. She did know what a 'True Name' was but that was basic knowledge. But this was completely new to her. If what she _thought_ True Name Magic was is true, that meant that Penelope was powerful. Ridiculously so. Almost, suspiciously so.

"Defendant, can you testify to the court about this?"

"Oh uh, True Name Magic. That…" She looked at the defense. Pip paused for a second. According to Mary's statement, she used True Name Magic to defeat the hellhound that attacked them yesterday. And then Penelope had testified about one of her powers to them earlier. A power that is directly related to the pendant…

This could be a chance to shut Nico down. If he uses the argument that her True Name magic makes her a threat, there's a chance that they can retaliate! Then there's the possibility that the reason why her pendant is so powerful is because of the True Name Magic. If that was true, they could win this case!

Pip gave the thumbs up to Penelope. As Penelope looked at her, she nodded. She knew that they were going to make something happen.

"That is something I can't do. Not naturally at least."

"Not naturally?"

"You see, the reason why I'm able to use the True Name stuff is because of this pendant." She said, showing the Silver Key to the court.

"Basically, I look at something for some time, 10 seconds or more, and then my pendant vibrates and these weird letters show up around that something. These letters are the True Name of whatever I'm looking at. Although, it's not _all powerful,_ like, I can't speak the true name of objects, only living creatures, I can only use it on one person at a time and it's displayed in the language of the person. But that isn't too much of a barrier to me, thanks to my powers as a child of Hypnos."

"Since Children of Hypnos have the power to sing lullabies in any language, right?" Will said, alerting everyone of his existence.

"Uh, yeah that."

"Hmm. So you have the ability to speak a person's True Name."

"Yes."

"I see. Well, questioning time is up. Witness, examine the pendant."

Ah.

Shit.

"Objection! WHAT?!" Meg shouted.

"Hm? Does the defense have a problem with my proposal?"

"I-you, what?!"

"If you are trying to communicate something to the court using a secret code made up of those three words, I'm afraid no one is getting it."

"Why are you passing up this opportunity? Her True Name Magic is extremely dangerous! It supports your case!"

"But it takes intense amounts of concentration, does it not? She has to look at something for ten entire seconds to use it! And let's be honest, all of us have ADHD. There's no way we can just stare at something for ten seconds straight. We'd lose our focus at eight seconds. Therefore, that power, while being dangerously powerful, is not something she can do at will, minimizing the risk of her using it to manipulate other people. Therefore, using that argument is pointless!"

Meg recoiled.

"Hm. It seems like our roles were reversed somehow. How strange."

"Danm you, di Angelo."

"Now that that's settled, Witness?"

"Yeah, yeah, guess it's finally time."

But then, Meg spoke up.

"Objection! Isn't True Name Magic really powerful? I mean, from what I know about it, speaking a person or object's True Name lets you gain full control of them, right? That kind of power…That must be the reason why her pendant is that powerful! Therefore, there is no need for an examination!"

For a moment, Pip thought they had finally turned the tables. This was the turning point. It's smooth sailing from here. But then she looked at Will's face, which was looking nervously at Mary's. She looked at Mary and saw the expression of a hobbyist who just heard something immensely incorrect and stupid about their hobby.

Shiiit.

"Hmm, the True Name Magic is the reason why her pendant is powerful? What do you th-"

"ARE YOU STUPID?! HELL NO!"

"Well that was fast." Nico murmured.

"That is DEFENITELY not the reason why her pendant is powerful! Sure, True Name Magic is extremely powerful. Sure, a magical construct that enables the user to see the True Name of anything is OP. But her power in that magic is WEAK! You have to look at something for TEN SECONDS! And it only shows ONE True Name. That is as low tier as it gets! Hell, it can't even be used effectively! She probably only uses it to get an absolute guarantee on making sure her enemy falls asleep!"

"Oh wow, you guessed it correctly." Penelope remarked.

"Point is, THAT IS THE DUMBEST THING I HAVE EVER HEARD IN MY LIFE! In fact, screw it!"

Mary jumped on the table.

"I'm going to use my Mystic Eye of Analysis to uncover the truth! I'll show that whole world that the defense is a couple of foolish fools with no understanding of magic!"

Before anyone could say anything, Mary jumped off the table and ran towards Penelope.

Her green eye began to glow fiercely as she stopped right in front of her and…stared directly at the pendant.

There was no fanfare, no joking banter, no note taking, no nothing. She simply stood there, her eye flaring softly.

It was kind of unnerving. Just what was in there that warranted such intense concentration?

Penelope was also extremely unnerved at the sight of her flaring eye and intense concentration, but it seemed like she was unnerved not because of Mary, but because it was… reminding her of something.

For the love of Pan, why did she have to be this mysterious? She should just be a simple child of Hypnos chilling out and wall climbing for some reason, not having weird memory flashbacks and being put on trial by a super scary prosecutor!

After what seemed like an eternity, Mary's eye stopped glowing and she stepped back.

"Woah…That was a lot of encryption."

This caught everyone's attention.

"Encryption?" Nico said.

"Yeah, like, the whole thing was encrypted. It truly was a challenge for my Mystic Eye. I should do that again… later. My brain's been brained."

Meg looked nervously at Pip, a gesture that Pip reciprocated. Things were getting strange… and dangerous!

"What did you manage to figure out?"

Mary looked away, embarrassed.

"To be honest, just a couple of stuff. Like, I managed to figure out that it has True Name Magic powers and that it's a defense charm. Although, from what I gather, it's a defense charm against Chaos. Which is kinda weird. Like, why would anyone need that? I mean, I have heard of this curse that drags people to Chaos or something but I think that was just a myth or something."

Nico seemed to be amused with that display of hypocrisy before returning to his cold state.

"Did you find anything else?"

"Well, no. There was like, a bunch of stuff and it was all heavily encrypted. The only reason I could find the stuff I did was using keywords like 'Defense Charm' and 'True Name'! Everything else was encrypted so heavily it would take me three whole days to decode it!"

Pip was alarmed. Her pendant _did_ have more than the True Name Magic in it, but what was everything else? Penelope only knew a few functions of her pendant but there were a lot more functions, why? Did her mom restrict that information because it was too early for her to know? That was obviously false. She's fifteen. By then the full extent of her powers should be known to her. So what is there in the pendant? Pip had no idea. But whatever it was, it was something that not even Penelope herself should know.

Damn. This is getting seriously messed up.

"Hmm. This… this is sufficient." Nico said, arms crossed and eyes closed.

The only advantage of her pendant being encrypted was that Nico wouldn't get decisive evidence. Now, the trial was reaching what seemed to be a stalemate.

"Oh yes, there is one last thing I want to ask."

"Yes?"

"From your analysis, the pendant only repels Chaos, right?"

"Uh yeah?"

" _Repels,_ not _deflects_ , right?"

"Umm… Yeah! There was no provision for, 'deflecting' Chaos, whatever that means."

Huh? That was weird. Why ask something like that? Mary had already stated that she only discovered those two things specifically. So why would he ask that?

Pip looked at Nico. He was looking at someone else, as if gauging their reaction. Huh, who was he looking at-

Penelope stood there trying to maintain a poker face. Fear and Panic had completely seized her.

If she tried to speak then, it would have been in a panic-stricken voice.

He found something out. And Penelope knew that. And Penelope did _not_ want to talk about it.

Pip was now frightened. There was something major about to go down.

"Now that the witnesses have performed their duties, I do think that we should have them go back to their cabins." Chiron said, breaking the tension.

"Ugh, yeah." Said Lou. "Can we go now? We've been standing here for like, centuries."

"Very well, you may return to your cabins."

"Thank you, Your Honor. C'mon Mary, let's go get some grub." Lou said, holding Mary's little hand and walking away from the witness stand.

"I want marshmallows."

"Sure, you can have marshmallows."

"The spooky pumpkin ones."

"Those are Halloween exclusives, Mary."

"Yes, but I know you keep a big stash of them."

"…How did you know?"

"I'm the Walking Grimoire~"

"Yeah, I thought so.

"But seriously, how did you-"

But the rest of the sentence they did not hear, as they had already gone outside, away from the courtroom.

* * *

Now the atmosphere shifted.

Something bad was about to go down. In all honesty, Pip wanted to grab Penelope and hightail it out of there.

But that was no longer an option.

They had to face this.

They had to fight.

The air in the court weighed down on everyone present, as Pip braced herself for the last act of this trial.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi so uh i updated the fic. Nice. Next chapter will (hopefully) be out soon


	12. The Trial of Penelope Pt.3

January 4, 11:45 AM

Camp Half-Blood

Inside Hades Cabin

It was silent, as silent as the shadowy realm of Night. Anticipation hung over the courtroom.

This was it. The final showdown.

It's all or nothing.

"So, uh, I think we should review what we have learned for the past… Gods, how many hours have we spent here?"

"Approximately two hours and forty minutes." Eric said casually, "I timed it."

Will opened his mouth in shock before closing it. He was in disbelief that they had been here this long. And he didn't even want to be here! He just tagged along to keep an eye on Nico. And now he was prosecuting against someone he genuinely thought was innocent.

That was what Pip gathered from the look on his face.

Nico glared quickly at Eric, probably for trying to set his boyfriend against him. Eric just turned his head and looked aloof.

"A good suggestion, Will." Meg said. "Based on what we have heard from…extensive testimonies we can answer many questions about the defendant.

"Firstly, the reason why she is able to use magic is because of her being a Legacy of Hecate thanks to her mother."

"Secondly, the reason why she seems to have a connection to Chaos is because of her curse.

"And finally, the reason why her pendant is that powerful is because…"

Meg fell silent. They really didn't find anything about the pendant huh? It's still as mysterious and vaguely threatening as ever.

'Maybe that's for the best.' Pip thought.

"Basically, we now know a lot more about the defendant than we did before.

"But.

"The real thing that needs to be determined is whether the information we have received can prove that Penelope is a threat to the camp.

"And I have already determined an answer.

"And that answer is…"

Meg slammed the coffin with both hands.

"NO!"

"Her parentage does not matter in this argument. Her curse doesn't affect other people, only herself. And yes, maybe the pendant is suspicious but that's not for us to decide!

"In other words, there is no evidence that supports your case! And that supports _my_ case!" Meg said, pointing her finger at Nico.

"Step down, Nico. Admit defeat and end this trial."

Nico stood silent for a moment. Pip could tell that he was exhausted. They had been here debating for two hours. This had to end. But as Nico raised his head to meet their eyes, Pip saw something in them. At first she couldn't tell what it was, but then she realized that it was determination.

"Admit defeat? Do you think this is a game to me? I'm trying to protect us. I'm trying to protect this camp. And if I have to win this farcical mock trial to do it I will. Besides, what you said was incorrect."

"What? Are you seriously implying that all the stuff I just listed off _is a LIE_?"

"No. What you said was correct. But you were wrong about something. I do have evidence."

Meg blinked.

"Hmph, you're bluffing. You don't-"

"I do. And it lies in her powers."

"You really are bluffing aren't you? You're treading over trodden ground, Nick."  
"Fret not. I don't have more witnesses to waste your time with. What I need to know had already been given to me, I only need to clarify something."

Nico turned to Penelope, who didn't look very…okay.

"Defendant. There is one last thing I must ask."

"…Yes?"

"Based on the evidence we have gathered, whenever you use your powers, Chaos attempts to drag you down to its realm. However, your pendant prevents this from happening. But what I'm interested in is what happens afterwards."

Penelope stayed silent.

"…I don't even need to ask at this point do I? Just admit it already. There's no way Chaos just up and leaves after its attempt to drag you down."

Penelope stayed silent.

"You know, your silence is proof of what I'm thinking. All you need to do is say it."

Pip was starting to get concerned. Nico was using some sort of intimidation tactic for some reason. She could feel that Nico was repressing something hard to even speak at this point. And the same was true for Penelope, except Pip could vaguely make out what was going on.

And she didn't like it one bit.

The fear and panic was boiling up now, compounded with a sense of frustration and anger.

Penelope was a dam waiting to burst. And Nico was pushing to break it loose.

"Enough. This has gone on for too long."

Nico slammed the coffin.

"Penelope Hayes, Tell us-"

"Wrong.", Penelope finally said. And the flurry of emotions broke loose.

"Excuse me?"

"You're wrong. I don't control Chaos. I _can't_ control Chaos. If I did, I would have commanded it to stay nowhere near a 30 mile radius from me. Every time I use my powers, every time that Mist surrounds me, I hear it. I hear its voice. And you know what it says? You what it asks of me? 'Who will you sacrifice?' I don't get do anything else. All I can do is sacrifice someone. If I refuse, they get…louder. I don't know what they'll do to me if I refuse them even more. So I'm forced to obey them. So yeah, I don't control Chaos. Your statement is wrong."

Everyone was taken aback. Until now, she hadn't really been aggressive, but now…

Pip looked at Nico. He…Oh gods, he's pissed.

"Really? You have no choice? You have magic from Hecate! You're a Magus! Those powers are already adequate. And yet you insist on using your Hypnos powers! You insist on weaponizing your curse!"

"Does that matter?! Does it really matter that my power stems from that curse?! A power is a power. It helps me achieve my objectives. So it doesn't matter where it comes from now does it?"

This shocked Pip. She'd never seen this side of hers before. She knew that Penelope was impulsive and reckless but this… This was a very dangerous way of thinking.

And yet.

There was uncertainty in her voice once more.

Like she never believed what she said.

But she had to drill it in her head.

As it was the only way to cope with the true nature of her power.

"Is that what you think?! That only proves my case! You, Penelope Hayes, are an irresponsible brat! An irresponsible brat having a power that can kill gods! Is there anything else I have to say at this point?!"

"Irresponsible? IRRESPONSIBLE?! YOU DARE?! Of course I know how dangerous this power is! Of course I know how easily I can hurt people with this power! I know that!" Penelope shouted violently.

And Pip felt it. She could hear it in her voice, a wound had been reopened. She knew that from personal experience. A very traumatic experience.

But that changed nothing.

Because the question still stood. In fact, it worsened.

If she knows that her powers are dangerous.

" _Then why do you still use them?_ " Nico said in his iciest tone.

And Penelope flinched.

She brought her hand to the left side of her face. And the vortex of emotions shifted. The anger that she was trying to hold out with had dissipated, leaving only the fear and panic. The wound from her trauma had reopened. A battle with her own ideals seemed to be taking place in her head. And there was something else. Something…dark. Something repressed that was trying to claw its way back out, causing her…pain?

Is-

Is she having a migraine?

Pip tried to say something but Penelope signaled her to not.

What the hell.

What the _hell_ is going on?

"Nothing else to say? Well, there was nothing left to say anyways. I believe this is sufficient evidence."

Oh shit, the trial.

"I… honestly don't know what to say." Chiron said. "The way she thinks and handles her powers is admittedly not ideal. But still-"

"Your Honor, we had an agreement, she's guilty. Declare the verdict."

As Chiron thought it over, Pip began to panic. Chiron can't refuse Nico. If he does, Nico will stop at nothing to kick her out of camp. And yet he can't just throw out a Camper like that! The chances were looking grim. Pip hoped for a miracle to happen.

And lo and behold, it did.

"Well, since the prosecution simply has more evidence against the defendant, I declare that Penelope Hayes is-"

"Objection!"

The court turned to the owner of that voice, and the owner of that voice was,

"What is it, Meg? Can't you see I'm in the middle of getting my verdict?"

"You're in the middle of getting your guilty verdict? Don't make me laugh! You're nowhere near that."

"What? Are you out of your mind? I have proven that she is a threat to Camp Half-Blood!"

At this Meg burst into laughter. Pip was nervous but as she saw her laugh, she realized she had a plan.

"Oh Nico. You haven't proved a thing.

"Sure, I'll admit it. The way Penelope thinks regarding her powers is uh, very bad. Like, that's a megalomaniacal mad scientist kinda way of thinking."

Penelope stayed silent.

"And yeah, that does qualify as grounds for her being a threat. But there's one thing you're forgetting. And that's her capability to change.

"You are making the assumption that she can't change at all. That she will never understand how to use her powers responsibly. But that's not true. No one can remain the same forever. People can change. And I believe that Penelope will change for the better."

"Hold it!" Nico interjected. "'Will change?' All you've been talking about is how she _can_ change. You can't say that she will change without-"

"Evidence, of which you have nothing, right? Well, that's where you're wrong."

"… _What?_ "

"You see, I have decisive evidence that completely destroys your theory and proves my client's innocence!"

"Wh-WHAT?!"  
If the courtroom were full, the jury gallery would be muttering furiously. This was unexpected. _Very_ unexpected. And Pip had no idea what she was talking about.

Was this a bluff? If she was bluffing they were, to put it bluntly, fucked.

But Meg had conviction in her eyes.

Just what the hell had she got? What is this piece of-

"DECISIVE EVIDENCE? THERE IS NO WAY YOU _HAVE_ ANYEVIDENCE!"

"Oh yeah? Then how about I show it to you?!"

"By all means, yes! Do show us exactly what this 'decisive evidence' is!"

"Very well! I present to you, the evidence that proves my client's innocence, the evidence that shows us that not only is she not a threat, but that she can be just as valuable as any other camper in this camp! The evidence that will destroy the hypocritical prosecution's vindictive theory! I present to you… PIP WOODSTOCK!"

She then pointed triumphantly at Pip.

Nico blinked.

"What the-"

"WHAT THE-"

"By Zeus' Beard! Ms. McCaffery, what-"

"The heck are you doing, Meg?!" Pip exclaimed.

"I think we all want to know that."

"Ok, look. Your entire theory is literally just judging Penelope solely because you saw that whole Chaos thing she did yesterday. You have no idea what her character is. And I don't either. But there is one person here. Someone who has consistently been with her for the whole time she's been at Camp. Someone who also happens to be an empath, meaning that she can perceive a person's true nature. Someone who also happens to be a Protector. And that person is Pip Woodstock!"

"In other words, you have a witness." Nico surmised. "Wouldn't she be a biased source? She is her Protector, after all."

"Alternatively, she's also the person with the best read on her character! She's her friend, after all. And she's also an empath, like I said before. Meaning her testimony is accurate to how she is!"

"Hmm, she does have a talent for empathy." said Chiron. "I know this since I was her mentor at one point."

Nico grimaced.

"Hmph. It seems that you did have an ace up your sleeve. Very well then, have her testify, let's see if it will be worth anything."

Meg turned to Pip.

"Now's the chance. Let's show 'em what were made of."

Pip looked at her. Meg didn't know anything about what she was saying. It was just her intuition that made her say those things. And Pip was surprised at just how good that intuition was. But now wasn't the time for that. Now, they had been given a chance. They were going to turn this trial around.

Pip took a deep breath and went to the witness stand.

"Witness. Please state your name and occupation to the court." Meg said.

"My name is Pip Woodstock. I'm a Protector for Camp Half-Blood."

"Now, tell us about Penelope."

"Yes. The defendant, Penelope Hayes, is a good person and I can testify for that. Sure she has some flaws. She's reckless, impulsive and misguided. But... She's also kind and…compassionate. From all the time I've spent with her, I can tell that she wants to help people. Heck, she's only impulsive when it comes to helping other people! Like that time she pulled that bluff against those monsters when I was escorting her to Camp! Or like, well, what happened yesterday! And she's been nothing but kind and helpful to everyone here! She may be shy and she may not really interact too much with everyone, but she's a really good team player at Camp Activities! I even saw her teaching some of the campers about wall-climbing!"

Penelope blushed.

"Oh wow, you saw that? Uh…" She put her hand behind her neck. "What can I say? Wall climbing's a good sport."

"Point is, she's not the kind of person who would use her power for evil. But, of course, her powers are...scary. If I'm being perfectly honest, even I'm kinda scared of her powers. And yes, she is extremely reckless with her power and how she deals with it is…misguided. But that's the point! She may be misguided but with proper guidance and support, she can be one of the best heroes to come out of this Camp! Throwing her out won't help anyone! If we do that, we would be losing a great Camper and we would be curbing her true potential. She doesn't deserve to leave this place! So yeah, Penelope may be a 'threat' now, but she can become a better person. And I believe in her."

From her stand, she saw a host of reactions.

Meg was overjoyed and enthusiastic (as much as she could be in court).

Chiron nodded at her with a look that said, 'Well said.'

Eric…was bored. The whole power of friendship thing must have bored the hell out of him.

Penelope was… oh gods, she's on the verge of tears. She could feel the gratitude. It looked as though she wanted to just run up to her and hug her to the ground.

If she did that you'd probably die. Though it would be a nice was to go out.

But the most interesting one was Nico's.

He seemed to be forcing himself to look at Penelope. And the emotion that he was trying to suppress was leaking out.

And it was remorse.

Pip wondered why he seemed to feel guilty for prosecuting Penelope. But then she remembered something.

She had heard many rumors about him. One of them was about how he spent a lot of his life as a nomad. About how after the first Titan War, he became a drifter, walking the Earth, believing that he had no place to go.

She'd also heard about his powers, about how they were dangerous and how some of his therapy sessions with the Camp Director, Dionysus were about his powers.

He must have sympathized with her. He must have known what she was going thorugh.

Prosecuting her was eating away at him.

But now, it could come to a rest.

Pip walked back to the defense stand. She could see it now.

Nico was going to step down. Chiron would declare Penelope, 'Not Guilty'. They would walk out of the courtroom, happy. Nico would probably try to apologize and make amends, which would be accepted by Penelope. Eric could fuck off and die. It would be a Happy Ending! Won through the Power of Friendship!

Nico, after a few moments of silence, spoke.

"Well, it seems you destroyed my theory with your empath's testimony. And she didn't even have any bias or anything. Truly well played.

"However, you're not the only one here who has an ace up their sleeve."

Meg, who was smiling triumphantly, quickly deflated.

"What?"

"I, in fact, have _another_ piece of evidence that proves my case."

"Oh come on! Nico, just give up already! Was that not enough to convince you?"

"Well, if it is any consolation, I have already accepted that the defendant is a good person. However, this piece of evidence is not related to her nature. Rather, it's related to the circumstances around her."

"The circumstances around her? What about them?"

"Let's begin with how she got to Camp. She was told about the camp by her mother and them sent to a park to sit at a bench and wait. After sitting there, she dozed off. This all happened in the afternoon. It was also stated that her pendant gave off some sort of signal that seemed to be tied to when she sleeps. And yet, fro the reports I have received, it states that Protector Pip Woodstock felt the signal while she was off on her morning walk! Add the fact that we know next to nothing about her mortal parent aside from the fact that she's a Magus and we've got a very suspicious case here. But doesn't prove anything. It may be suspicious but not enough to brand her as a threat. But _this_ does. Or rather, _he_ does."

"You have another witness?"

"No, this person I am speaking of wasn't even supposed to be questioned by me, I simply investigated everyone else involved with him. But of course, the Fates have other plans. He is sitting right here in this courtroom, acting as a spectator to this whole trial, or rather, he's acting as the _Jury_."

And then all eyes turned to Eric. And Pip's stomach lurched, for she had realized exactly what he was going to say.

"Eric L. Smith is one of the newer Campers here, arrived here just yesterday, in fact. And from the testimonies I have received from Apollo and Chiron, it is safe to say that Eric is kind of person who would commit war crimes just because he's bored."

"Touché." Eric said.

"Putting a psychopath like him in the same place as the girl who has the ability to wipe out literally anything in existence by sentencing it to a fate worse than death is not a good idea. And let's be honest, no matter how much we'll try to prevent it, Eric will pull something dangerous with her. And of course there is the fact that he was found a week after Penelope appeared and was brought to Camp under similarily strange circumstances by the same Protector. That, in my opinion, is a red flag.

"In other words, it doesn't matter whether she's a good person or not. As long as Eric is in Camp, Penelope is a threat."

Meg bit her thumb.

"H-Hold it! If that's the problem then why don't we get rid of Eric? I mean, Penelope won't be a threat as long as he isn't there, right?"  
"That's the problem, we can't let him go." Pip said. "The reason why I let him in after what he did was because he was too dangerous to be kept unchecked. We can't let him get away so the only other option is…"

Pip lowered her head, determined not to look at Penelope.

"But… No! This can't be! There has to be-"

"Another way? Even if we lock Eric up in some kinda prison cell, it won't change the fact that he would still be in Camp and that he still make Penelope the bigger issue. So the answer is obvious. Now give up, Meg."

Meg stood there in silence. Then, she spoke in an angry voice.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Excuse me?"

"Why are you so insistent on kicking her out?! I get that you're trying to 'protect the camp' or whatever but this is too far!"

"Her powers-"

"Are dangerous, yes but you're not even giving her a chance! There are actual people who care about her, who'll defend her and be by her side no matter what, just like Apollo did for me! Just like your friends did for you! Is that not enough for you to stop being such a hypocrite?"

"Enough. You're wasting my time. Your Honor, the verdict."

"Gods, what will it take for you to just listen?!"

"I…"

"Your Honor."

"Why do you keep doing this?! Why can't you just-"

"Your Honor, there's nothing to think about, she's guilty, declare the verdict!"

"For the love of- Nico! Just stop!"

As Meg shouted at Nico, Pip couldn't help but look at Penelope. As the two stared at each other, Pip saw a look of resignation in her eyes.

It's over.

They lost.

They may have tried their hardest, but the enemy was just too much for them to handle.

Now, there was nothing they could do.

"Ahem."

Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to the source of the voice.

"The Jury would like present its opinion on the trial so far." Eric said.

"You may speak, Eric."

"Thank you, You Honor."

Saying this, he got up from his bunk and walked to the middle of the courtroom

"First of all, I gotta say, this was definitely entertaining. The defense did a good job squirming like worms and the prosecution did a fine job at bullying some random girl with a curse. It truly was amusing. But… there's something I would like to ask to the prosecution." Eric said and tuned to the prosecution.

"Mr. di Angelo. Before I begin, I have to tell you something. You see, I'm not bragging or anything, but I do consider myself to be a 'people person'."

"Go on." Nico said irritably.

"I'm able to perceive the true nature of anyone, much like that girl with the magic eye. For example, I can tell that you really don't want to play… heh, inquisitor to the defendant. Seeing as you seem to share something in common with her."

Nico stared silently at him.

"But you can't give up, you have to get her kicked out. You have to make her leave. Otherwise, the whole Camp will be in grave danger!"

"Hmph. If that is all you have to say, then I'm afraid you're wasting my-"

"You're hiding something, aren't you?"

The tension in the room skyrocketed. As Pip looked at Eric, whose face seemed to be mere inches away from Nico's, she was reminded of a snake. At first, he was just playing with his food, lulling it with a false sense of security, but he had struck, swiftly and powerfully.

"Wh-what? What makes you think that?"

"Y'see, you're a good person. Noble, heroic, kind, merciful. You're definitely a cookie cutter good guy, despite your gothic aesthetic. That's probably why Mr. Sunshine over here hooked up with you. But you see, good guys don't endlessly prosecute innocent people, not without _reason_. So go ahead, explain yourself."

Pip couldn't see his face, but she could tell he was smiling. And Nico…Nico seemed to be...

Nervous?

"So what if I have some 'other reason'? I don't have to share these details."

"Well, sure, you could just not testify, but let's be honest, Inquisitor. _Do you really think you can do that now?_ "

And so the snake's venom flooded the mouse's veins. It was now paralyzed and helpless. There was no escape now.

Pip was once again scared out of her damn mind.

"That is all I have to say. I leave the rest to you, Prosecutor." He said finally, as he went and plopped himself back on the bunk.

Nico stood there in silence, wracking his head on what to do. Eventually, he decided on coming clean.

"Well, I suppose after that, there's no point in hiding it anymore. The reason why I wanted her gone… started last year.

"Will and I… we had a mission to retrieve someone from…Tartarus. The mission itself was a success, we were able to rescue that person. But in doing so I... found myself at the edge of Chaos."

"Wh-WHAT?! You didn't tell me that!" Meg cried out, her frustration with Nico quickly being replaced with concern.

"There I… I received a prophecy. A prophecy warning me about 'the Silver Key'."

Pip noticed that Penelope had her hand placed on the left side of her head again. Once again she felt that feeling from her. That feeling that something was trying to break out of her. That was strange, she didn't seem to bother when those monsters called her that or even when she said it herself. Yet when it's connected to Chaos…

"I… I couldn't rest after that. I would search for days on end about who or what this 'Silver Key' was. I couldn't rest until I had answers. I began taking outside trips more often, I started to inspect other Campers. I did everything I could in my power to find it but it forever remained elusive. Eventually I gave up, told myself that I didn't need to do all this. I could just…relax. I could just…live. But then…I saw Penelope. And I knew who the Silver Key was."

Nico lowered his head and crossed his arms. He…He didn't seem to be doing so well.

"To be honest, I don't believe that prophecy. The one who said it…he was on the verge of madness. But I know that she's a threat. I know that. Please, we need to get her to leave. I don't know what will happen but I know it's going to be bad. Please, we have to do this. Please!"

Chiron looked at the Prosecutor, now scared and desperate.

"Nico…you-"

"ARE A COMPLETE DUNDERHEAD!"

The doors slammed open and Apollo burst into the room.

"You received a prophecy from _Chaos_?" Apollo said, slamming the prosecution's coffin. " _That's_ what's making you do all this?"

His expression turned stern.  
"Nico, a prophecy from a source like that is not trustworthy! And besides, there's always the possibility that you misinterpreted it."

Nico didn't seem to sure on that last one. But the strange thing was that _Will_ seemed to also not be sure on that last part.

Was Will aware of this from the beginning?

Did he know about whatever was tormenting Nico? Did he know why he was this paranoid?

Pip would say her iconic 'what the hell' but the sheer amount of WTH moments that have happened during this trial completely fried her brain.

"Basically, you can't act on this prophecy now, not before the Oracle of Delphi officially announces it."

Then, Meg gasped.

"Wait, if Nico has been acting on an unofficial prophecy that may or may not be true…Does that mean…"

"It means my case…"

"Was never valid to begin with." Apollo finished.

"Although, saying that kinda exaggerates it, since Rachel predicts that the prophecy will be spoken on Friday. You can say that it isn't over just yet. So… I think it's more of a stalemate?"

No.

This wasn't a stalemate.

Nico wasn't going to continue with this, he had had enough. That's what Pip saw as he lowered his head silently.

This by all intents and purposes was a victory.

But this…

They can't accept this.

They had struggled and suffered so much. Penelope having taken most of the suffering sent their way. And yet.

They won.

No.

They had lost. They struggled with all their might but it was not supposed to pay off. It _didn't_ pay off. The whole reason why they won was because of a technicality!

The only reason they won was because of…Eric.

He's the one who brought that information to light at the end of the trial.

He's the one who pulled that Deus Ex Machina bullshit on them.

"Well. It appears that due to this new information, the verdict is now impossible to declare. So I guess this means that court is adjourned. You all may return to your cabins."

Eric got up first and went to the door.

Before he left, he flashed a smug grin at Pip.

They couldn't protect Penelope.

They may have given everything they had got, but they couldn't do it.

The only reason they won.

Was because of someone you hated.

Truly sad.

That was the message she received from him.

She glared at him with boiling anger. But he was already gone.

Oh forget it, it isn't worth it.

Pip decided to leave, Meg and Penelope following her out.

She noticed that Will stayed behind, probably to comfort Nico.

She understood. This was probably as much of an ordeal for him as it was for them.

And for it to end like that…

Anyone would be upset.

* * *

As the three stood outside the obsidian walls of the Hades Cabin, Pip realized that she was tired.

This was… a day.

She turned to Penelope.

"You okay?"

Penelope looked at her, tiredly.

"I'm…" she sighed. "I gotta get back to my cabin."

"Same here, I don't thing I'm in the mood to go get lunch."

She probably wasn't in the mood to eat lunch at all. They all were.

Meg waved goodbye and walked away.

Penelope did the same.

And now it was just her.

As she watched them leave, Apollo's words played in her head.

"Friday, huh.

"Guess that's something to look forward to."

Saying that to herself, she walked back to the forest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well.  
> That was long.  
> New chapter will arrive soon.  
> Hopefully.


End file.
